Twin Flames 'T' version
by CanonAntithesis
Summary: Twin Flames are literally the other half of your soul for which all souls are driven to find and join. Sharpay is up to her scheming ways in trying to get Troy Bolton, the hottest guy at East High. Penname changed from GimmeABeat to CanonAntithesis
1. Everything Changes

**Twin Flames**

_A High School Musical fanfiction_

_by_

_GimmeABeat_

_beta'd by karazoel_

**Time period:** Set during HSM 2, but there's also some time travel involved.

**Setting:** Albuquerque, the place doesn't change, just the time frame

**Summary:** Twin Flames are literally the other half of your soul for which all souls are driven to find and join. Sharpay is up to her scheming ways in trying to get Troy Bolton, the hottest guy at East High. However a oddly familiar archeological find draws them into a mystical Indian curse that changes their lives forever.

**Warning:** There is significant Troy/Gabriella and Sharpay/Other, but don't worry, this will be TroyPay.

Disclaimer: No copyright infringement is intended. This fanfiction is based upon the Disney movie _High School Musical_. All characters and situations other than my own are sole property of Disney Corporation [Copyright©2006,2007,2008].

**Chapter 1: Everything Changes **

"_But it's summer, Ry. Everything changes."_

- Sharpay Evans, High School Musical 2

Sharpay Evans took the turn off the main road at 50 mph and fishtailed the Mustang convertible before revving up the engine to regain the lost speed. It was the first day of summer vacation and she was in a fabulous mood. Due to her thoughtful intervention, Troy Bolton, primo boy at East High, secured a summer job at her family's country club. It was the perfect set-up. By the end of the summer, he would be hers.

She smiled over at Ryan who was looking paler than normal. "Don't you love the feel of the wind when we drive really fast, Ry?" The tanned blonde easily down shifted the manual transmission as they started to climb the steep hill. The winding and picturesque desert landscape was a private road which led directly to the gates of their home-away-from-home for the summer, The Lava Springs Country Club.

Ryan's pale complexion started to turn a little green as the Mustang gathered speed. "I-I think you might want to think about slowing down so we'll make it to the club in one piece." The combination of whipping wind, the blasting radio and the extreme speed of the car forced Ryan to yell any conversation with his sister.

"No prob, baby brother. I've driven this road so many times I could do it blindfolded." She looked over at Ryan who had his hand clamped onto his head, holding his signature hat on, and almost laughed. Sometimes he acted so geeky it was hard to believe they were related, let alone twins.

"S-stop looking at _me_, Shar!", Ryan whined. "Keep your eyes on the road!"

"Oh Ryan, stop being such a Darbus", Sharpay replied as she nonchalantly swept her hair out of her eyes. Six months ago, the co-president of the East High Drama Club would never have considered disparaging the name of their beloved sponsor. However, that was before Ms. Darbus betrayed everything Sharpay held dear by letting those outsiders into _her_ theater. Now all bets were off.

So wrapped up in her thoughts of disgust for all things theatrical, she barely heard Ryan shouting and looked up just in time to slam on the brakes with such force that the car slid sideways before coming to a halt crossways in the middle of the road. The near accident left two stripes on the blacktop and the putrid smell of burning rubber wafting in the air.

"What the hell?", Sharpay shouted indignantly.

While at the same time, Ryan inquired shakily, "Are you alright, Sharpay?"

"Fine! I'm just fine!", she snapped while flinging off her seatbelt and stepping out of the car with an air of intense indignation. Staring straight ahead at the line of people blocking the road, she added unnecessarily, "But they won't be!" She ripped the white scarf off her head and marched over to the closest Native American.

For standing in the middle of the roadway, completely blocking the entrance to the exclusive country club, stood twenty or more people. Some of them were wearing traditional Native American ceremonial garb, including feathered headdresses, bells and moccasins. Everyone either carried large banners or signs attached to sticks. All of these media broadcast the same message to the world via the diligent work of one lone local television reporter and her cameraman. That message was that the local Pueblo Indian nation objected most fiercely to the planned expansion of the club's golf course.

Before Sharpay made it to the protest line, the perky young reporter jammed a microphone in her face and asked for a comment. At first, Sharpay was irritated at this woman's unwelcome interruption of the ire that she planned on lambasting at the Indians. An instant later Sharpay saw two of her most favorite things in the world: a microphone and a video camera. Therefore, the patented Sharpay Evans sneer transformed into a most delightful smile. She was ready for her closeup.

"Miss Evans, Miss Evans! Andrea Stephens, KROC News Channel 8, could you share your opinion of current situation?", the brunette woman asked excitedly.

Sharpay removed her oversized white sunglasses and smiled benevolently, directly into the camera. "Of course, Andrea", Sharpay spoke as if they were lifelong pals. "It's simply a question of misinformation. My father, owner of Lava Springs Country Club, wants to expand _his_ golf course onto land which _he_ owns. Unfortunately, these misguided people, for some unknown reason, feel they actually have a say..."

Before Sharpay could finish her lengthy explanation, an older Native American man walked over from the picket line and interrupted. "Excuse me, but she is misdirecting the truth, which is what we have been trying to explain." He had high-cheek bones, deep-set ebony eyes and bronze weathered skin. His salt and pepper hair was worn long and tied into a pony tail which flowed down his back. He wore blue jeans, cowboy hat and boots. In other words, he looked like half of the blue-collar workers one would encounter in New Mexico.

"This is Chief Richard Sanchez of the Sandia Pueblo Nation", explained Andrea.

Chief Sanchez continued, "These lands are sacred to the Pueblo people and Vance Evans is ..."

It was Sharpay's turn to interrupt. "...is improving the local economy by employing _your_ people to build _our_ golf course. And if you play your cards right, maybe some of you could get jobs waiting tables or caddying at the course." Turning to face the camera, Sharpay continued happily, "We're an equal opportunity employer."

"You're an equal opportunity racist!", shouted a young Caucasian man who came running forward carrying a sign which read, "Down with Greedy Materialism". He was dressed in a ratty, threadbare t-shirt, ripped jeans and worn tennis shoes. He obviously hadn't shaved or bathed in many days. In other words, he looked distressed, but purposely so.

"Oh, pu-leeze!", Sharpay shot back. "You're no more Indian than I am. Daddy told me all about you people. You're one of those professional protestors! Next week you'll probably be marching in front of the World Bank. And BTW, you're not fooling anyone with scratty look. Your clothes may be shabby, but everyone can see that's a Rolex on your wrist." She winked at the cameraman and pointed to the young man's left arm. Then she turned back to the older Native American. "Hey, Chief! How 'bout you move this line and let me through before I call Daddy."

Sharpay strutted back to her car and slid into the seat with a satisfied look on her face. Ryan sat slumped in the passenger seat with his hat pulled down over his eyes.

"Oh, sit up straight, Ryan. You look like you're embarrassed to be seen with me."

Ryan raised an eyebrow at this remark, but wisely decided to say nothing.

Sharpay put the car in gear and was just about to pull forward when an ancient Pueblo woman appeared from out of nowhere at her window. Her dark skin was deeply etched with wrinkles and her lips disappeared into her toothless mouth, adding to her shriveled appearance. She was bone thin, but surprisingly strong when she latched onto Sharpay's forearm which was propped on the door of the Mustang. In heavily accented English, she rasped, "Beware the stone!"

"Let go of me!", Sharpay whined, trying unsuccessfully to pull her arm away from the old lady.

The old woman continued as if Sharpay hadn't said anything. "Your future lies in the past. Beware the stone! Beware Kokopelli!"

"Look, old woman! Get away from my car before I run you down." Sharpay pulled away abruptly causing the old woman to stumble backwards, luckily to be caught by Chief Sanchez.

* * *

Richard Sanchez looked her over with concern. "Are you alright, Grandmother?", he asked in their native Tiwan language.

The old shaman wasn't a blood relation. Sanchez used the term Grandmother as a term of respect for an elder of the tribe. In fact at 97 years old, she was the oldest living member at the pueblo. She had been a much respected shaman when his own grandfather was a boy. She was said to be a direct descendent of Popé, the religious leader who led the great Pueblo Revolt of 1680 against colonization of the Spanish. And most importantly, she was said to have 'the sight'.

"I am fine, but I am not so certain about her." She held out a shaky finger, indicating the pink Mustang which was whizzing up the road. "She is the one, the one in my visions."

"Are you sure?"

"The visions are never wrong."

Sanchez exhaled slowly as he helped the old woman back across the road. There wasn't anything he could do about the visions or about the Evans girl. If there was one thing he had learned in his time on this earth, Grandmother's visions could not be changed even if that is what you desired.

* * *

The Lava Springs emblem, an embossed L and S, occupying the diagonal quadrants of a Native American inspired geometric seal, sat at the center point of two large metal gates. These gates shut out the rest of the world from Albuquerque's most exclusive country club. As the pink Mustang approached, the gates automatically opened allowing two of its more important members to enter.

"Wow, that was weird", Ryan commented as he sat back up in the seat and checked the positioning of his hat in the car's vanity mirror.

"It's just like Daddy said, Ryan", his sister commented. "There's the haves and the have-nots. We're the haves and the have-nots think we should feel guilty about it."

"Huh? I'm talking about that weird old woman, not the protestors. Although, I'm thinking of coming with Dad in the chopper tomorrow. It bothers me to cross that protest line."

"See what I mean. They're making you feel guilty about what our father has worked so hard for."

"Shar, he inherited his money and so did his father, and his father before him."

"Oh, whatever... You know what I mean."

"I'm afraid I do", mumbled Ryan to himself and then, more loudly said, "But what about that old woman? What did she say to you? I couldn't hear anything."

"You were too busy hiding under your hat", Sharpay quipped. "She just said some spooky shit that was supposed to scare me. Well, it didn't. It didn't scare me one bit", she added bravely. She reached down and quietly rubbed her arm where the woman had held her. The fingermarks were beginning to fade, but it felt as if they were holding her still. "And besides, Daddy is allowing those archaeologists access to the club."

"You're right", Ryan admitted. "But he's only letting them in because of public relations. I mean after the construction workers started finding artifacts, Dad kinda had to stop and let them investigate."

"Whatever...", she replied flippantly. "I don't much like golf anyway. And besides, if everything else goes as planned, I just know it's going to be a fabulous summer."

* * *

"So how's Taylor doing?", Troy asked his best friend, Chad Danforth.

It was their second day of summer vacation which meant it was their second day of working eight hours a day in the hot kitchen of the Lava Springs Country Club. The work was hard, but most of his friends were here too, so Troy found that he actually enjoyed it. Plus his girlfriend, Gabriella, worked as one of the lifeguards even if she didn't work with him directly.

He and Chad were rolling the silverware into starched white napkins in preparation for the lunch rush. The busy hustle and bustle of the kitchen provided constant background noise, competing slightly with their conversation.

Chad smiled as he thought of his girlfriend, Taylor McKessie, one of the undisputed brainiacs of their school. "She's great. Taylor really likes working with her uncle. She isn't making any money, of course, but it's great work experience and will look great on her college apps."

"Yeah, I can imagine, finding undiscovered riches, gold doubloons, ancient treasures. Sounds really cool."

"That's all wrong, man. That's Hollywood. Real life is digging in the dirt for twelve hours a day with a toothbrush, according to Taylor. But it's really important work, so she's really excited about it."

"Yeah, I can't believe the golf course was built on top of an Indian burial ground. That's kind of creepy."

"That's also _kind of_ false, Mr. Bolton", Fulton said as he swooped up behind them from out of nowhere. He had an irritating habit of doing that. "The expansion of the Lava Springs golf course _may_, and it's a big may, be on some sort of Native American artifacts. There's as much of a chance of finding a burial ground here as there is in your own backyard. However... be that as it may, the Evans family has graciously agreed to allow an archaeological investigation on the property in order to assuage any difficulties with the Pueblo Nation. By the way, what does any of that have to do with the proper folding of table linens?"

"Nothing, sir", Troy replied quickly. "It's just that Chad's girlfriend is working at the dig site."

"That's right, Mr. Fulton, your Honor. She's an intern. Her uncle is the lead archaeologist."

"Well, isn't that special", Fulton noted sarcastically. "Now, get back to work! And no more talking!"

* * *

Despite a rocky beginning of summer vacation, Sharpay bounced back quickly after learning of how Fulton misunderstood her order to hire Troy. That idiot club manager had hired Troy alright, along with most of high school basketball team plus his girlfriend, Gabriella Montez.

She could work around this though. After all, she was Sharpay Evans and she was nothing if not resilient. The first step was to make herself helpful to his future. Thanks to Daddy's position on the Board of Directors at the University of Albuquerque, that step was well underway. He had already met the U of A Red Hawk's basketball coach and most importantly, he had promised in front of her entire family to sing with her.

Step two of her plan involved separating Troy out of the pack. And that, she knew, could best be accomplished with the help of Italian leather, in the form of a pair of very expensive golf shoes. Troy had readily accepted his promotion to assistant golf pro.

The next step was for Sharpay, herself, to sign up for lessons.

* * *

The golf lesson was going well as Sharpay noted with satisfaction how his hands lingered on her hips after she took a swing.

"You're doing really well, Sharpay. You're a natural."

"Oh, don't be so modest, Troy. It's all in your instruction", Sharpay responded in kind. Aware that they were being watched, she leaned in closer and whispered, "You have great hands."

Chad and Gabriella stood just off the putting green, observing the lesson.

"I wouldn't worry if I were you", Chad said as they watched Sharpay as she laughed at something Troy said.

"Oh, I'm not worried", Gabriella replied just a little too quickly.

"Good, 'cuz Troy knows who his friends are … oh, and his girlfriend too. He, definitely, knows who you are."

"Thanks, Chad." She graced him with a half-hearted smile and a shy tilt of her head.

Chad's cellphone rang, temporarily interrupting any further discussion. "It's Taylor", Chad commented as his girlfriend's picture popped up on his screen.

"Hey, babe. What's up?", Chad asked and his face became serious as he listened intently to what she was saying.

"Right now? ... Yeah, sure. It's almost our lunchtime anyway. ... Whoa, whoa, whoa... You want us to bring Sharpay? Are you sure about that? ... Well, alright. I'll try. ... Right, we'll be there in a few. Bye." He closed the phone.

"It's the weirdest thing..." Chad was talking to Gabriella in an odd, far-away voice, but continuing to stare at Troy and Sharpay who were still on the green.

"What's wrong?", Gabriella asked.

"Taylor wants us: you, me, Troy, Ryan, and get this, Sharpay, to come over to the dig site. She says she's found something really important and it concerns Sharpay."

"Sharpay? What could it be?"

"No idea, but we'll need to hurry if we don't want Fulton to catch us."

* * *

"Oh goody, we're here", Sharpay announced as she, Troy and Gabriella stepped out of Troy's pickup truck. At first Sharpay was completely opposed to tramping out to a dirty archaeological site. However, upon further consideration, she knew it would be a great opportunity to bond with her 'school chums', as her mother had phrased it. In truth, of course, she had realized that Troy was driving and this would be an great opportunity to sit pressed up against him on the bench seat of his truck. She hadn't counted on Gabriella being there too, but even her unpleasant presence hadn't deterred the intrepid blonde, especially when Sharpay was the one next to Troy and Gabriella sat pressed up so close to the door that it looked like she would fall out.

Ryan pulled up seconds later in a Lava Springs Jeep Cherokee with Chad.

"Are you sure this isn't some sort of set-up by those protestors?", Sharpay asked Chad.

"I'm not sure about anything, except that Taylor said we needed to get over here ASAP", Chad replied.

Looking around, it looked like a typical construction site, not an earth-shattering archaeological dig site. A couple of vehicles sat in a makeshift parking lot, along side the requisite porta-John, and a beat-up travel trailer with so much dust and dirt on it that it was difficult to say what color the thing was underneath. And further up a small slope, sat the bulldozer where it had sat parked since uncovering the artifacts.

As they were taking all this in, the trailer opened and tall African American man stepped out. He had short mostly gray hair and wore khaki pants and work shirt which were covered in a fine dust. He approached them with a congenial smile on his face. "You must be Taylor's friends. I'm her uncle, Mike McKessie. Just call me Dr. Mike, that's what my students call me."

They introduced themselves and Dr. Mike pulled out a walkie-talkie and called Taylor to come and join them. Looking at the stunned looks on their faces, he explained. "So many of our dig sites are in dead zones, so I never trust cell phones. Now just be prepared... Taylor's got a pretty wild hypothesis going on here."

Within the minute, Taylor came bounding over the hilltop, removing her wide-brimmed straw hat as she ran, full of smiles and excitement. She, like her uncle, was also cover in dust. Wearing a "Green is the New Black" t-shirt, blue jean shorts and hiking boots, she looked like she had just come off a 5-mile hike.

"Oh! You made it! And you brought Sharpay! This is just wonderful." Taylor was as giddy as a cheerleader who had just been graced by a smile from Troy Bolton.

"Yeah, wonderful", Sharpay scoffed under her breath. "I have a two o'clock facial scheduled, so if we could just step this up a little..."

"Right, sorry." Taylor seemed uncharacteristically nervous. "Come with me. It's right over here."

They followed her to a canopy which was set up on the backside of the travel trailer. In the middle of the canopy sat a small card table and on the card table sat a small cardboard shoebox. "It's in there", Taylor announced. "We just got it back from the lab today."

Taylor nervously lifted the lid. Simultaneously, all five of the teenagers leaned forward to gaze upon Taylor's momentous discovery. And they kept gazing, waiting for something, anything to happen. For some strange reason Troy had expected to see a jewel-encrusted golden chalice or maybe a priceless diamond necklace. Instead, he saw...

"It's a hunk of rusted metal." Sharpay voiced Troy's thoughts exactly, although he would never admit it to anyone.

"Yes! Isn't it exciting?"

"A hunk of rusted metal is exciting?" Troy knitted his brows in concentration.

"This dig site dates to the pre-Colombian time frame or Pueblo IV as archaeologists categorize it." She looked at her friends … and Sharpay … expectantly. "Don't you get it?" She waited and nothing happened. "Gabriella? Surely you get it, right?"

Gabriella shook her head slowly. "I'm sorry, Taylor. I don't know what you're talking about."

"In Pueblo IV, They. Didn't. Have. Metal. Well, actually they did have some copper, but that's beside the point. My point is..."

"Oh, thank God. I didn't think she even had one", Sharpay commented as she fanned herself with a piece of paper she picked up off the table.

"My point _is_...", Taylor continued while glaring at Sharpay. "This isn't just metal. We had it analyzed and it's made up of copper, iron, nickel, silver, and zinc, with small amounts of aluminum, gold, lead, manganese, palladium, platinum, and tin." She folded her arms over her chest and waited for someone to figure it out.

Gabriella got it first. She blinked once, twice and said, "But that's not possible. Most of those metals aren't native to the southwestern US. And it's not like they have world-wide trading routes then."

"Exactly." Taylor had achieved her 'ah-ha' moment. "But wait, there's more."

"Oh, joy..." This comment, of course, came from Sharpay who was starting to regret coming on this road trip.

"We sent a small scraping of the paint to be tested." She stopped, trying to build the drama.

"And?!" Surprisingly, this exclamation came from quiet Ryan Evans, who was starting to turn bright pink in the heat.

"You're holding the report, Sharpay."

Sharpay looked down at her 'fan' and tried to decipher the scientific jargon. "Is this written in English?"

"I'll just tell you, okay? It's acrylic."

"No!", exclaimed Garbriella who was starting to pick up on Taylor's excitement. "But that's not possible either! Acrylic paint is made by suspending the pigment in an acrylic polymer emulsion. That was only invented about 100 years ago and if it's pre-Colombian it would have to be..."

"From the mid-1500's … exactly", Taylor finished for her.

Sharpay was getting fed up and had decided that using the paint report as a fan was a far better use for it. "So what?! All that means is your time frame is wrong. Somebody dumped this hunk of metal sometimes in the last 100 years. There! Mystery solved! Now let's go find some air conditioning."

"I'm with blondie on that one", chimed in Chad. Visibly no one looked hot, except for Ryan who looked like he was ready to pass out. Because of the low humidity in Albuquerque, people didn't usually perspire much unless they were near the river where the presence of water caused the humidity to rise.

Ignoring Chad, Taylor continued her explanation, speaking directly to Sharpay. "Not possible. The artifact was uncovered at a strata which had lain uncompromised for over 450 years. That's a given."

"Okay, okay... so say you're right. Who cares?" Sharpay was becoming exasperated.

"You do." Taylor looked like she had been waiting for that exact question since this discussion started.

"Me?"

"The percentage of metals exactly matches the composition of the modern cellphone AND the color clip precisely matches the coral pink color of the limited addition Sharp Juicy Couture Sidekick. The exact model that you yourself own, Sharpay."

Sharpay's eyes widened. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. My phone is right here." She reached in her Gucci hobo bag and pulled out her cellphone, holding it up for all to see.

"Y'know, Taylor... that doesn't make a lot of sense", Troy said carefully, not wanting to insult her.

Like a television barker selling the latest and greatest kitchen gadget, Taylor continued enthusiastically. "Wait! There's more! Follow me."

She led the now reluctant group up the short hill to the dig site. White string was laid out in a grid-like pattern about six-inches off the ground, held there by small wooden stakes. Dozens of students sat hunched over different areas with small brushes and notebooks. Taylor skillfully stepped over the grid lines without disturbing them. The others followed, reasoning that humoring her would be the fastest way to get out of the heat. She lead them to a corner where much activity was taking place.

"Take a look at this! But don't touch it", she cautioned. Lying on the ground was a flat stone with lines etched into it. It took a moment to realize what they were seeing.

"It's a stick figure." Sharpay stated in an extremely bored voice.

"I don't feel so good, guys", Ryan announced in wobbly tone.

"It's the heat." Dr. Mike stepped up behind him and led the grateful boy down to the travel trailer.

Getting an idea from her brother, Sharpay echoed his sentiment. "I don't feel so good, either." She started to follow the archaeologist and Ryan.

"Oh no, you don't. This is all for you." Then with the dramatic flare of a stage magician, Taylor carefully blew away the sand from the section of the stone below the figure. There revealed for all to see were the initials, SE.

"This is a joke, right? Right?", Sharpay repeated, sounding a little nervous.

"It's no joke", Taylor said, very seriously.

"You know", Troy said thoughtfully. "That stick figure looks a little like Sharpay. Don't you think?"

Chad had a different opinion. "I think it looks like one of those petroglyphs over at the monument."

"You mean like those cave paintings in France?", Gabriella asked. Gabriella was referring to the caves in Lascaux, France. The complex system of caves in southwestern France contained some of the earliest known art, dating back to somewhere between 13,000 and 15,000 BCE.

"Nah, we got our own right here in Albuquerque. I forgot you haven't lived here that long."

"Or been forced to go on countless field trips to those boring rocks", added Sharpay.

Gabriella's eyes lit up at the thought of learning something new. "That sounds cool. I'd love to see them."

Troy smiled. "I'd love to show them to you. We could go today after work."

"You know, I haven't been there since fifth grade. I'd love to see them too, Troy", Sharpay said as her before unknown interest in prehistoric art announced itself. "We could drive over together. That truck is soooo cozy."

"Hey, guys! Look at the time", Chad pointed to his watch frantically. "We're going to be late getting back. Fulton will be furious."

Sharpay decided to show what a magnanimous person she could be. "Don't worry, Troy. I can handle Fulton. Take your truck back. I'll stay here and drive the Jeep back with Ryan."

"That's really nice of you, Sharpay."

"No problem. What time should we meet for the trip to the petroglyphs?"

"Ummm", Troy shot a fleeting glance over to Gabriella who was pointedly ignoring him. "How about 4:30? We'll have time to look around before it gets dark."

She smiled broadly. "Sounds good. Now, go before you're so late even I can't fix it."

* * *

Troy, Chad and Gabriella piled into Troy's battered pick-up truck, this time with Gabriella in the middle. They started off down the road with Troy whacking the dashboard in order to coax the air conditioner into working. It had worked fine on their trip to the site, but had now decided to break at the hottest point in the day.

Giving up on it, he decided to concentrate on his driving. "That was really nice of Sharpay to offer to help us out with Fulton", he commented with forced indifference.

"Y'think?" Gabriella crossed her arms over her chest and scoffed at the suggestion.

"I think she was only offering to help _you_, singular, not _you_, plural. As in she wants to help Troy Bolton, not the rest of East High", Chad commented as he tried to roll down the truck window causing the manual crank to break off in his hand. Chad looked down at it with wide eyes and nonchalantly threw the handle into the glove compartment.

"That's not fair, Chad. She's not that bad." That didn't sound convincing, even to him. He decided to try again. "Her family's really nice."

"Hmmph", was the only comment Gabriella made.

Troy decided to change the subject. "What do you think about all that stuff that Taylor said?"

This had the desired effect as Gabriella sat up straighter and became enthusiastic in her explanation of the theories of a space-time continuum and stable wormholes. Surprisingly, Chad seemed equally excited about this prospect and Troy heard him saying something about time machines before he completely tuned them out, noticing instead the lingering scent of Sharpay's perfume in the truck.

**TBC**

**Author's Notes:**

**Hey, I'm back.**

Sorry, this has taken so long. Lots of RL and a particularly research-heavy plotline.

This first chapter is just the setup for what happens next, so keep reading … and reviewing.

Thanks,

j


	2. I've been a good girl

**Twin Flames**

_A High School Musical fanfiction_

_by_

_GimmeABeat_

_beta'd by karazoel_

**Chapter 2: I've been a good girl... **

"_I've been a good girl... I've never lied... Except when necessary. I've always bought my parents expensive gifts... Using their credit cards, of course!"_

_- Sharpay Evans, High School Musical 2_

Even someone new to the area had to admit, Albuquerque was a strange city. At the edges of the far west side, designated the West Mesa, where tract home subdivisions sprang endlessly out of the desert landscape, an anachronistic volcanic escarpment laid untouched by the greed of modern land developers. Managed by the state and the city of Albuquerque to protect the estimated 17,000 petroglyphs was a 17-mile-long basalt ridge which was home to the 7,100 acre Petroglyph National Monument.

200,000 years ago, the long-quiet Rio Grande Rift opened here, and released wave after wave of lava from a massive fissure. The lava flowed over the soft sedimentary land that surrounded the fissure, then filled canyons and surrounding hills. Five volcanic cones rose up to dominate Albuquerque's western horizon, and then all grew quiet again. Over the millennia, the remaining sedimentary earth was slowly washed away from around the harder basalt of the lava flows, leaving the dark mesa that rises above the present Rio Grande Valley today.

Now, the city of Albuquerque filled the expanse between the escarpment and the river, and the world had changed in ways that would have seemed inconceivable a mere century ago, let alone when those first petroglyphs were carved.

This dramatic and beautiful landscape has drawn people to it almost as long as there have been people in the area. Possibly as far back as 800 BC, the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians who still live nearby began to visit the escarpment, and to place ritual marks and images upon the black boulders that litter the mesa's sides. Circles, spirals, and abstract lines were the first petroglyphs that would eventually come to define the place.

**=/\=**

"Wow", commented Gabriella as she opened the squeaky door of Troy's truck. "That's really impressive." Chad and Taylor came tumbling out after her, both of them grumbling about the cramped, hot trip to the historical escarpment. Chad was complaining most loudly due to the fact that he was forced, for some unexplainable reason, to be pressed thigh to thigh next to Troy.

Gabriella insisted that Taylor and Chad accompany them on their impromptu field trip to the Petroglyph National Monument. She knew Taylor would want to study the carvings and compare them to the one she found at Lava Springs and Chad, of course, would want to travel with his girlfriend. The fact that this completely shut out Sharpay from riding with them was the definition of serendipity. Sharpay and the recently recovered Ryan followed them in her Mustang.

"It's just how I remembered it", Troy commented while Chad was leaning against the truck bed trying to stretch the kinks out of his back.

"I don't remember being all squished up in the school bus the last time I was here", Chad grumbled.

"Let's go pick up a trail guide", Troy said to Gabriella and the two of them starting walking over to a nearby modified mailbox which held the free visitor's guides.

Sharpay and Ryan drove up and Ryan, who had forgotten his sunglasses, was squinting against the harsh afternoon glare. "Where's the bathroom?", he asked. After determining that his earlier illness was due to dehydration, Ryan had been guzzling water all afternoon.

"There isn't one, Ryan", Taylor told him.

"You'll just have to go against a scrub", Chad added.

"That's disgusting", Sharpay commented as she watched Troy and Gabriella. They were standing away from the group and Troy had his arm wrapped tightly around her waist as she giggled wildly over something he was whispering into her ear.

"When Mother Nature calls, you have to answer, Sharpay."

Sharpay looked at Chad in confusion. "Huh?"

"Okay people", Taylor announced. "Those petroglyphs aren't going to come to us. Let's move."

**=/\=**

After a short walk from the parking lot, they found themselves suddenly surrounded by petroglyphs. Ancient images with sacred significance were displayed liberally along the dusty trail, carved randomly into the black volcanic rock.

Taylor was in her element as she began a guided tour of the etchings.

"This is the Rinconada Canyon. We're walking up the canyon floor now. Archeologists believe Ancestral Puebloans made most of the 1200 petroglyphs in Rinconada Canyon four to seven hundred years ago; although, Pueblo elders believe the images are as old as time. They also believe that the petroglyphs choose when and to whom they reveal themselves. Maybe one of us will be considered special enough for the petroglyphs to talk to us."

"Ooooo", Chad wailed in his best spooky, otherworldly voice, "go buy my image on a postcard, ooooo. I think I hear a rock talking to me now."

"Very funny. Just ignore him", Taylor said as she did just that. Turning to Gabriella, she continued unabated. "Earlier, Gabriella... you called them cave paintings, but that's not precisely correct. Petroglyphs are literally images carved in rock. They aren't painted on."

Gabriella looked embarrassed and shyly walked a few feet away to study a particularly beautiful spiral pattern cut into the rock. Normally, she was the expert on any given subject. She hated not knowing. Silently, she vowed to google petroglyphs as soon as she got home and study up on them.

"Most of the petroglyphs were made by pecking. An early method of pecking may have been accomplished by striking the basalt boulder directly with a hammerstone removing the dark, desert varnish on the boulders surface. Later, a more controlled execution was..."

As the enthusiastic young woman continued to drone on, Sharpay took this opportunity to stand closer to Troy who was studying a stick figure which was vaguely reminiscent of the one Taylor had showed them that morning.

Sharpay had changed clothes from her morning golf lesson; after all, she couldn't go hiking in Spandex. Each piece of her outfit was chosen with Troy in mind. She wore a pink tank-top, trimmed in feminine lace which encouraged the eye to linger on her breasts. Her low-riser denim shorts were so short the pockets hung down past the ragged hem and they barely covered her rear. The pink Merrell hiking boots were the only part of her ensemble that wasn't designed to attract that certain blue-eyed hottie. Sharpay was hoping that her fashion styling would show him her ability to be sexy and still dress appropriately for the situation. She noticed with much satisfaction that Gabriella had just thrown on a pair of shorts over her Lava Springs bathing suit. Plus Sharpay knew those flip-flops could actually be quite dangerous in an area littered with rattlesnakes.

"Hey", Sharpay coquettishly brushed her shoulder against Troy's arm as he stood stooped down, staring at the drawing.

He looked up at her with a raised brow. "Hi, isn't this amazing? I mean... I don't remember these things being this impressive when we came here in fifth grade with Mrs. Nichols."

Sharpay followed Troy's eye to the figure on the stone and was stunned. It didn't look like the stick figure it at first appeared to be. It seemed to come alive as she studied it. "Yeah...", she murmured while reaching out a hand to trace it on the rock surface. "She's gathering water from the river. See there... on her head, she's carrying a clay pot. That girl had to walk over half a mile to reach the water and then carry the full container all the way back to her village."

Troy seemed to understand exactly what she was saying. "Yeah, yeah, I see it. She's the oldest daughter in her family and it's her responsibility to bring the water."

"That's right", Sharpay nodded enthusiastically. "And her name is ..."

"... Butterfly", Troy finished for her.

They both turned and looked silently at each other, cerulean blue meeting milk chocolate brown.

"Troy, there you are", Gabriella ran up, breaking the spell. "We thought we'd lost you. Come on, we found some really cool drawings around that boulder." Gabriella grabbed his arm and started pulling him away.

"Gabby, wait a second." Troy pulled away from her and turned back to Sharpay. "Sharpay?" He held his hand out to the petite blonde.

Sharpay hesitated a second and Gabriella, once again, started to pull Troy away. "Troy... the others are waiting." Her voice was insistent and edged with a slight doze of grouse.

"It's fine, Troy. I just need a second", Sharpay told him quietly. "I'll catch up."

**=/\=**

Sharpay watched as Troy walked away, still reeling from what just happened. He and Gabriella walked up the trail and turned to the right around a large boulder. Troy looked back at her one last time before disappearing around the corner.

_What just happened?_

She had just shared a flashback? a memory? a something … with Troy Bolton. Any other time and she would have been thrilled that he seemed to be interested in actually talking to her. Sharpay wasn't stupid. She realized that thus far in their relationship she was the only one actually pursuing any relationship.

But now... they had shared an experience where a cryptic figure carved in a volcanic rock had actually spoken to them, told them her tale. At first it was just a drawing, but then the figure became clearer and clearer until it was like she was staring at a photograph. Then, the photograph became more like a video and Sharpay could actually see the girl going through her daily chores, living her life. And more importantly, Troy must have been able to see the girl too. Butterfly... he had said her name was Butterfly, so he must have heard it too. No, _heard_ wasn't right. It was more like the girl's name was whispered into her mind.

She looked back one last time at the girl and for a second she could have sworn she smiled at her, but then it was gone and there was only a stick figure chiseled into the rock.

**=/\=**

"Don't you think we should wait for Sharpay?" Troy kept looking back down the trail as Gabriella led him away.

"Don't be silly, Troy. She knows where we are. What were you two talking about, anyway?" Her voice sounded casual, but her eyes told a different story.

For some reason Troy didn't want to share his experience with her, even if she was his girlfriend. He shrugged instead. "Nothing much, just talking about the petroglyphs."

"Then why weren't you talking to Taylor instead? I am sure she would have loved to discuss it with you. What does Sharpay know about anything other than herself?"

Before Troy could comment or even process her caddy remark, they had come upon Taylor, Chad and Ryan. The trail had narrowed to a single file and then opened up into a field of petroglyphs littered over dozens of basalt rocks. It was a treasure trove of human-like figures, intricately carved animals, and geometric designs. The gang were scattered around the area each of them having found something which interested them.

Chad saw Troy approaching and stood up from where he was intently studying an etching. "I found him, Troy", Chad announced proudly while Taylor rolled her eyes.

Troy was still reeling from his experience with Sharpay and wasn't following what Chad was talking about. "Found who?"

"You know... the man", Chad replied knowingly, his voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "Kokopelli."

Now Troy rolled his eyes. Back in elementary school, it was a huge bragging right to be the first boy to find the petroglyph of Kokopelli. He was the ancient Pueblo Indian's fertility god. The humped-back flute player, which symbolized the southwest on everything from keychains to wine, was also the trickster god and represented the spirit of music. He wasn't always drawn anatomically correct, but when he was, he had an unusually large and erect penis. That, of course, was why Chad was behaving in such an absurdly adolescent manner. Troy remembered one year, the vice principal had accompanied their class to the monument so he could stand guard at the drawing with a towel draped over its offending part.

"Chad...", chastised Taylor, "you are such a doofus." She chose to completely ignore him as per usual and began to walk further up the gently sloping trail.

"What is it?", Gabriella asked innocently as Chad stepped aside to show her. The young Hispanic woman squinted slightly at the stick figure which was crudely carved into the black rock. Then, her eyes went wide as she realized what she was seeing. It was the body of a man with a curved back, holding a stick which symbolized a flute in his hands. At the junction of his legs, however, lay that appendage which made Gabriella blush.

"Is that...", she started to ask.

Chad was practically rocking on his heels. "Yep, my man, Kokopelli, is very well endowed."

"That's disgusting." Gabriella wrinkled up her nose.

"I'd better catch up with Taylor. I think I've reached my quota of dumb remarks for today", Chad told Troy and Gabriella as he left in the direction Taylor had taken.

Gabriella started to follow Chad, but then stopped when she realized that Troy wasn't with her. "Troy?"

"Uh?" Troy had been looking back for Sharpay again. "Oh, just a minute Gabby."

"Hey, Troy? Where's Sharpay?", Ryan, who had been ahead of them, came back for his sister.

"She's supposed to be right behind us. Maybe we should go check on her", Troy suggested.

Gabriella heard this exchange and turned back to Troy, harrumphing loudly. "I thought she said she'd been here many times. It seems to me that she should be able to find her way around."

"Gabriella..." Troy's voice sounded slightly strained. "What's your problem?"

Ryan's eyes quickly darted between the two and realized this was none of his business. He quietly disappeared back down the trail to look for Sharpay.

"What's my problem? Sharpay is my problem. She's basically offering you a college education just for singing with her in the talent show. How can I compete with that?" She tried to push past him, causing Troy to lose his balance and crash into the Kokopelli etching.

"Damn", he muttered as he scraped his palm on the rough volcanic rock.

Shocked by how she had behaved, Gabriella rushed to help him. Troy pulled back his stinging hand and looked at it, surprised by how much it was bleeding. The volcanic rock was razor sharp.

"Oh Troy, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have have done that." She quickly pulled a tissue out of her purse. "Here, let me see your hand." Troy held it out to her and she pressed the tissue to his bloodied palm.

Troy looked down at her and said quietly. "Gabby, there's no competition between you and Sharpay. You are my girlfriend, not her. You're the one I want to be with." He pulled their linked hands up to his mouth and gently kissed her knuckles. Gabriella smiled up at him in obvious happiness and relief.

They walked together to catch up with rest and neither one of them noticed the small spot of blood left on the petroglyph of the trickster.

**=/\=**

"I'm sorry, Shar", Ryan quietly told to his sister from where they stood unnoticed just a few yards further down the trail.

Sharpay bristled slightly. "Why, Ryan? Despite what he just said, he _did_ promise to sing with me and I know he won't break his word. Beside, I'm not interested in him _that_ way", she lied. "I just want a singing partner who will insure I'll win the Star Dazzle Award."

"What about me? What about _our_ act?" Ryan whined back.

"_What about me_?", she echoed back at him in singsong voice. "That's awfully selfish of you, Ry."

"God, Sharpay! You're driving me crazy. I try to offer you comfort and you throw it back in my face. Tell the others I'll meet them back at the parking lot." An angry Ryan stormed off, leaving an equally seething Sharpay standing alone.

She stomped further up the path following in the direction the others had taken, away from her brother. When she reached that infamous drawing of the humped back flute player, Sharpay had just about had enough. She desperately needed to expel some of this anger on somebody, but no one was here. Then she noticed Kokopelli and instantly the cryptic message that that old Indian woman said came flooding back into her.

"_Beware the stone! Beware Kokopelli!" _

Maybe this was what she was talking about. This drawing had been the site of her two worse events this summer. First, she'd witnessed a disturbing exhibition of PDA between _her_ Troy and that interloper and then, she's had a huge fight with Ryan. Because, despite what she had said about Troy, she wasn't giving up that easily. He would be hers, but that didn't mean she wanted to alienate her own twin.

That's how she decided to kick the carved image of Kokopelli.

"This is all your fault! You Goddamned, mother effing, son of a..."

She pushed her rhinestone bedazzled sunglasses up on her head and prepared to let loose on that sex-crazed etching. Leaning forward slightly, she put all her weight on her right leg as she pulled her left leg back and … her foot connected with the exact spot where Troy's blood still sat. Her eyes went wide when the surface she expected to be hard, turned out to have no tension at all. Her foot went straight into the rock surface and she instantly felt a strong pulling on the rest of her body as she was pulled into the stone. Sharpay let out a muffled scream as the rock itself seemed to open up and swallow her, leaving nothing behind except her bright pink sunglasses lying on the sand.

**=/\=**

Troy, having made amends with Gabriella, explained how he felt responsible for leaving Sharpay behind. After all, as he explained it to her, they all worked for the Evans family. Therefore, she didn't complain when he told her he needed to go check on the boss' daughter. He was just coming around the corner of the large boulder when he spotted her standing next to Kokopelli. At first he thought Ryan was with her, but then Troy realized she was yelling at the fertility god ... or at least, his image.

He stopped and smiled at the sight. Boy, did he pity that flute player. Troy started to walk forward when Sharpay suddenly swung back her left leg and kicked directly at Kokopelli. He started to chuckle at the sight... until he realized she was falling … into the rock!

Troy tried to call out when he heard her scream and later, he would never be sure whether he had actually yelled anything or not. He was just too stunned.

"Oh my God! Sharpay!!" After she had completely disappeared, he definitely called out and loudly.

**=/\=**

The gang was back in the open area of the canyon within minutes. They were unilaterally shocked by what they saw. Troy was on his knees in front of the Kokopelli glyph, clawing frantically at the rock.

"What happened, man?", Chad asked his distraught friend, who didn't seem to realize he was there.

"There has to be a way in! There has to be!", Troy shouted, without stopping in his search. "I have to get her back."

"What's going on?", Ryan asked when he arrived slightly out of breath from the parking lot. Troy's voice echoed through the canyon walls and came booming out to reach Ryan as he was almost to the car. Looking around, he immediately noticed someone was missing. "Where's Sharpay?"

"Troy, Troy... you need calm down and tell us what happened." Chad grabbed Troy's shoulders and pulled him away from the rock, spinning him around to face them. Chad surprised himself at how calmly he was handling this strange situation. The girls were frozen and didn't seem able to help at all and Ryan had just arrived, so Chad had decided to take charge.

"Let me go! There's got to be some sort of trap door or hidden latch or something, so we can get inside. Who knows if she can even breath in there?"

"In where? What are you talking about?", Chad enunciated each word slowly, hoping it would calm his friend down and help him understand. "Troy, you've got to stop and help us all here, man. We want to help, but we don't understand what's happening. Take a deep breath and try to talk calmly."

Troy closed his eyes for a second and did as Chad instructed. He took a deep breath and let it out in ragged spurts, but at least he wasn't trying to dig his way into a rock anymore.

"Okay... okay... you're right. I'll try to tell you what I saw." He relayed the whole story of how Sharpay disappeared into the rock face, falling into it as if it wasn't solid rock at all.

Chad straightened up and stared at Troy for a full ten seconds before responding. Then, he said with a grin, "You're shittin' me, ain't ja?"

**=/\=**

The reaction which his explanation evoked should have been expected, but it still surprised him. All four of them stared at him like … well, like he'd just told them he saw someone get swallow up by a rock.

"Wha... No, I swear it's the truth", Troy said plaintively. His eyes lit up as an idea struck him. He pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and dialed 911. "The fire department! They have huge axes. They can dig her out."

It wasn't until he finished the phone call that he noticed that both of his hands were dripping blood, the results of him banging and clawing on the jagged volcanic rock. Gabriella, for some reason, didn't seem overly enthusiastic about coming to his aid this time.

**=/\=**

A disorienting nothingness swept over Sharpay. She was falling and she wasn't. She was freezing and she wasn't. She couldn't breath and she could. Suddenly, the world righted itself and she landed hard on her hands and knees right next to the Kokopelli glyph. Using the rock, she pulled herself up and realized with disgust that her hand was touching the grotesquely oversized phallus of the humpbacked flute player.

"Eww..." She pulled her hand back immediately. "Had to be a guy who thought up that one."

Movement off to the left caught her attention and she turned, expecting to see … hopefully, Troy or probably, Ryan. Instead, her voice caught in her throat at the sight of two short but muscular men wearing little more than loin clothes and high moccasins that reminded Sharpay of her own Ugg brand sheepskin boots. Their straight, shoulder-length ebony hair was held down with white cloth headbands, and they were each carrying a bow with a quiver of arrows worn crossed over their backs. They looked like extras from a cowboy and Indian movie.

The two Indians approached her slowly, murmuring to each other in a language she didn't recognize. While she couldn't understand the language, she thought she was beginning to understand the situation and she wasn't pleased. _Who did these protestors think they were? First, they blocked the entrance to the country club and now, they're running around dressed like Indian braves._

Standing up straight with her hands on her hips, she exhibited much more confidence than she felt. Sharpay cleared her throat and delivered her lines in a voice with which Ms. Darbus would be proud.

"I don't know what you think you'll gain from this, but my father isn't going to think this is very funny … and neither do I. He owns that land and if he wants to expand the golf course on his _own_ property, then who are you people to say otherwise?"

They looked at her quizzically, but didn't stop their slow advance. The little blonde began feeling a little unnerved by the two men and slowly backed up … right into the muscular wall of a sweaty male chest. Sharpay whirled around to find herself staring at a much taller and much more intense Indian. He stood at well over six feet tall --- about the same height as Troy, she noted. And the serious look on his dark face made the other two look like idyllic children. His face was sharp with high cheek bones that jutted out at severe angles. He also had a prominent forehead and heavy brows which left his deep-set black eyes in perpetual shadow.

The big man barked a command, and the other two wasted no time in grabbing Sharpay by her arms and roughly dragging her down the trail toward the parking lot. Except...

They rounded a curve in the path which led to the top of the trailhead where the large parking area was visible and Sharpay stopped kicking and screaming as she took in the sight before her. Where she had parked her pink Mustang thirty minutes earlier, there now stood … absolutely nothing. It wasn't that her car was gone. Oh no, the entire parking lot was gone. The visitor's center, the parking lot, the picnic tables … it was as if they had never been there. There was nothing but flat, brown desert. Sharpay pulled with all her strength and jerked away from her captors, but she didn't try to flee. Instead, she slowly turned around, trying to find some logical explanation for why her world had suddenly vanished. She faced east and immediately found comfort in the ever present sight of the Sandia Mountain. Soaring to over 10,000 feet, the panoramic mountains were Albuquerque's most prominent feature. They allowed city inhabitants to always find their bearings by referencing its peak.

Even with that constant landmark in view, Sharpay knew things were very wrong. She should have been able to see the nearby housing development or hear the sounds of engine noise coming from the small air field nearby. This close to two major interstate highways, I-25 and I-40, there should have been traffic sounds. The only thing she heard, however, was the squawking of a solitary eagle as it flew in lazy circles above them.

Sharpay felt like Alice, having just fallen down the rabbit hole.

**TBC**

**Author's Notes:**

Since I've done all this research and stuff, I'll try and let you know what's real and what I've made up.

The Petroglyph National Monument is real and it really is in the middle of a subdivision on the western edge of Albuquerque. However, I don't think there's a Kokopelli glyph there, but there are Kokopelli etchings at other locations in New Mexico. And yes, there really is Kokopelli wine, in case you're wondering.

With respect to Troy's height... since he is a high school basketball champ, I always picture him as being significantly taller than Zac Efron. Plus, yeah... I like tall guys.

Please R&R. Thanks, j


	3. I Like What I See

**Twin Flames**

_A High School Musical fanfiction_

_by_

_GimmeABeat_

_beta'd by karazoel_

**Chapter 3: I Like What I See**__

"_I like what I see; I like it a lot."_

_Sharpay Evans, HSM2_

**'T' version**

**=/\=**

She soon became aware of the Big Indian, his air of superiority clearly stating that he was in command of the other two, standing very close and glaring down at her with impatience.

"Look, you're obviously in charge here", Sharpay said, trying to sound assertive in a situation where she clearly was anything but. "So maybe you can help me. I don't know where I am. I must have hit my head when I fell and then … somehow, I ended up here … wherever here is. All I want to do is call my father." She reached into her Gucci hobo bag and pulled out her Juicy Couture pink Sidekick cellphone. "I'm sure he'll be happy to reward you for bringing me home." She brought up Vance Evans' smiling face in her address book and pushed [SEND]. She expected the phone to emit its customary series of beeps as it dialed his number, but instead, a low-pitched tone pulsed out of it. She glanced at the screen and barely had a chance to realize that the phone was out-of-range when a tremendous force slammed into her hand. The excruciating pain that radiated up her arm caused her to drop the phone into the sand.

The Big Indian, as she had come to think of him, started yelling at the shorter man who had just hit her. The smaller man, whom she had nicknamed Thing 1, mumbled something back but, obviously chastised by his superior, chose not to confront him. Suddenly, Sharpay's phone emitted a high-pitched, ear-piercing sound, reminiscent of a car alarm. Thing 2 reacted immediately and began repeatedly hitting the device with his bow. It only took three or four good strikes to put the poor phone out of its misery.

This was serious --- more serious than anything Sharpay had ever experienced. A man had hit her. No one had ever done that to her in her entire life, even as a child. Her parents did not believe in corporal punishment. Now, Thing 1 had hit her and Thing 2 had destroyed her phone. Holding her injured left hand cradled against her good arm, she slowly looked up at The Big Indian who was staring back at her with grim determination. He grunted some instructions to her while pointing at the phone, and Sharpay quickly picked up the Sidekick with her good hand and dropped it back into her bag. The Big Indian then grabbed Sharpay by her uninjured arm and started marching across the desert towards the east with the two Things following cautiously behind them.

**=/\=**

It was after midnight and Troy was starting to regret having dialed 911. Once the police realized that Sharpay Evans was one of _those_ Evans', her disappearance became of matter of utmost importance. After all, the Evans family was one of the most prominent in the state. Amber alerts were issued; roads were blocked; vehicles along all the major roadways were searched. And finally, the National Guard was brought to full alert.

After six hours of fruitless searching, the police came to the logical conclusion that Troy Bolton was their number one 'person of interest'. Troy had been very helpful. He painstakingly explained over a dozen times to over two dozen police officers and one National Guard Colonel how Sharpay had been swallowed up by a petroglyph. Unfortunately, it never occurred to him how ridiculous his story sounded until it was after midnight and he was still sitting in the interrogation room at police headquarters.

How was he going to get out of this mess? And how was he going to get Sharpay back? Up until this point, he had mostly just thought of her as pushy and just a little bit scary. Oh, he had recognized and appreciated her looks; she had one more hot bod.

Hell! He had better stop thinking like that or it would give them even more evidence to hold him.

Anyway, after witnessing her disappearance, Troy had started to realize how much he missed her. She wasn't as bad as everyone, including himself, thought. Hadn't she arranged for him to meet with the coach of U of A? Hadn't she arranged for his promotion to assistant golf pro? Plus, he was beginning to have a sneaking suspicion that she was also responsible for him getting the job at Lava Springs in the first place.

Just as he was sinking deeper and deeper into thoughts of Sharpay, the door opened and his parents came rushing in.

"Oh, Troy! We were so worried", his mom gushed as she engulfed him in a bone crushing hug. He hadn't realized his mom was so strong.

"I'm fine, Mom. Just fine..." He pushed her away slightly, not wanting to show any weakness.

Troy had already embarrassed himself earlier when he started crying during the questioning. He didn't want to show the same weakness in front of his father.

"What's going on, son? Did you have anything to do with Sharpay's disappearance?" His father was much more stoic than his mother.

"Of course not, Dad. How could you even ask?"

"I work with teenagers everyday. Sometimes... things get out of hand. Kids do stupid things. Kids get hurt. Troy, are you taking drugs?"

"I didn't do anything stupid and neither did Sharpay. And NO! I'm not taking drugs!" Even to his ears, he sounded defensive. And why not, he'd been saying the same thing over and over again for the last three hours straight. He certainly hadn't expected to hear this from his own father.

"Jack...", Lucy Bolton laid a gentle hand on her husband's arm. "Calm down. We know Troy. He would never..."

Jack ran his hand through his dark hair. "I know, Luc. I know. It's just... Troy, did they tell you they'd searched your room?"

Troy's eyes opened wide. "What? When?"

"About two hours ago, dear", his mother explained. "They had a search warrant."

"I have no idea how they got it so fast. Guess it's that Evans' money at work. Anyway, they took your computer and your Wii. I also have no idea why they'd take that. But you're sure... they aren't going to find anything, right?"

"Of course, not! I already said that." Troy slammed his hands down on the table, forgetting that they were injured and wrapped in gauze. "Damn!", he exclaimed when the pain radiated up his arms.

"Oh Troy..." His mother was on him in seconds. "What happened to your hands?"

Troy sighed. "It's fine, Mom. I just scraped them on the rocks." She tried to look at them, but he pulled away. Lucy hadn't said anything to upset him, but his father's insinuations were causing Troy to dislike both of them right now.

The door opened and Lieutenant Ruiz stepped inside. He was one of the junior detectives on the case and was the only one who hadn't acted like Troy was some sort of mass murderer. Carlos Ruiz was young for a detective; in fact, he didn't look much older than Troy. He was short, but trim, and wore his jet black hair slicked back straight from his forehead. His off-the-rack suit showed that Albuquerque didn't pay their non-uniformed officers enough to splurge on their wardrobe.

"Hi, Troy", he said amiably. "I just wanted to let you know that you're free to go now, but don't leave town."

"Why would I do that?", Troy snapped as he simultaneously rose and prepared to leave the room. "I haven't done anything wrong. Why won't anyone believe me?"

He just hoped that Sharpay, wherever she was, was faring better than he.

**=/\=**

Two arduous hours later, the small band of three men and one clearly exhausted woman entered the outer edge of a thriving village of over 1,000 inhabitants. Row upon row of adobe brick homes, some stacked four stories high, filled street after street of the town. Each story of the rectangular, flat-roofed structures was set back from the one below it, with the roof of the lower house forming a patio for the upper. The effect was such that they resembled modern-day apartment buildings. Ladders leaned against the buildings at each level, which gave access to the next. The houses were laid out in city blocks with well-trodden dirt streets between them.

Although sunset was approaching, there was still enough light in the sky to reflect off the honey blonde locks of the woman's long hair. Her unusual clothing also garnered much interest from both male and female onlookers. They began to attract a crowd, as they slowly made their way to the plaza at the center of the village. And by the time they reached their destination, a large group of villagers had gathered around to watch the spectacle.

Sharpay had never been more frightened in her entire life. Actually, in comparison to this, she had never been frightened, period. The Big Indian finally let go of her arm and in her exhaustion, she sank to the ground, having completely forgotten about her injured hand. He pulled her shoulder bag out of her hands and Sharpay didn't even have the strength to protect. Then he said something to her in a stern voice which she took to mean, "Don't go anywhere". Turning on his heel, he marched over to a low, round wall about twenty feet away. Sharpay watched him intently since it gave her something else to think about besides the thirty or more people staring down at her. What at first appeared to be a low-lying wall was actually the roof of a subterranean structure. Sharpay could see a ladder sticking out of a hole in the center of the structure which led underground. The Big Indian swiftly approached the ladder and, giving one more quick glance to Sharpay, climbed down and out of sight.

His departure acted as a silent signal to the crowd, and an ancient woman with dark, leathery, wrinkled skin slowly approached the distraught teenager. At first, Sharpay thought she was that creepy Indian woman from the protest line, but then realized she was a different shriveled up old woman. She whispered a single word over and over again. To Sharpay's ear, it sounded like ka-nat-ya.

_She wished these people would just speak English._

The old woman reached out a shaky hand and, with a speed that belied her advanced age, harshly ripped Sharpay's silver rhinestone hair barrette from her head, taking quite a few strands of blonde hair with it. The blonde barely had time to scream before the floodgate opened and the other women in the crowd descended upon her, ripping and pulling at her clothes. Her pink tanktop was pawed and tugged and ripped from her body as Sharpay tried feebly to protect, first her property, and then her modesty. The stretch and give of the synthetic material seemed to fascinate them. Her shorts were ripped off as she kicked and fought without success to stop them. Even her hiking boots weren't spared from this horde. The bright pink shoe strings were more popular than the zipper in her shorts. Before long, they had forgotten Sharpay and were fighting amongst themselves over her clothing, leaving Sharpay in nothing but a lacy white thong and dingy socks, curling into herself and trying desperately to cover her mostly naked body.

**=/\=**

Troy could only get his bedroom door open a foot before it hit something and stopped abruptly. Shoving with all his might, he heard a crack and the door gave way for him to enter. That's when he found that his treasured MVP trophy had been wedged against the door and now lay snapped in half on the floor.

"Damn", Troy muttered as he held the two pieces of the trophy and tried to figure out how to put them back together. He was too tired to think about it. Dropping the trophy parts back onto the floor, he turned to face the chaos that was once his bedroom.

Books lay scattered across the floor; the curtains were pulled off the windows and lay on top of his mattress, which had been upended and now lay nearly sideways across the boxsprings. The entire room was strewn with what looked like a ream of loose leaf paper. His dresser drawers had been taken out and their contents dumped into the middle of the room. The drawers, themselves, had been discarded against the far wall. Even his cherished collection of Star Wars action figures had been destroyed, ripped out of their original packaging and cast about the room with everything else. Picking up a mangled Boba Fett, he slunk down onto the bed, finally allowing tears to flow down his cheeks.

_How had all this happened?_

Troy was too tired to be angry right now. He'd be angry tomorrow. Without bothering to undress or even to move his mattress back into its proper location on his bed, Troy rolled over and fell asleep with Boba Fett still in his hand.

**=/\=**

For the second time that day, Sharpay heard the angry roar of The Big Indian as he verbally castigated the women, who quickly fled the plaza, clutching their stolen booty closely to them. At least she assumed he was chastising them and for that, at least, she felt a little grateful. He draped a large blanket over her shoulders and urged her to rise. The blanket was barely enough to cover what little modesty she had left and she clutched it tightly to herself. With his arms wrapped protectively around her shoulders, they made their way over to the hatchway from where he had just emerged.

Sharpay could see it more clearly now and realized it was a kiva. She remembered very vividly a particularly sweltering elementary school field trip to the Tijeras _Pueblo_ Archaeological Site. Just on the other side of the Sandia Mountains in the Cibola National Forest, the ruins of Tijeras Pueblo included a large kiva built in the center of the pueblo. A kiva was a subterranean room with access only from above through a hole in the roof through which a ladder protruded. The kivas were used for religious ceremonies, and visions of human sacrifice immediately entered Sharpay's head.

She started to pull away from The Big Indian until he clamped his hand down on her shoulder, pulling her closer to him. He then whispered into the shell of her ear and even though she couldn't understand what he was saying, his voice sent a shiver down her spine. She clutched the cloth more tightly around her, and tried not to tremble. All pretense of bravery was obliterated in the next moment when a procession of elderly men emerged from the kiva. Five agile but slow-moving men climbed up the ladder and arranged themselves in a circle around Sharpay and The Big Indian.

When the final man climbed out, Sharpay nearly fainted. He had the same breech cloth and moccasins as every other man there, but his entire upper body was completely covered in the elaborate mask he wore. It was made of carved wood and painted in bright colors which seemed incongruous with the desert landscape. Large slanted eye holes were cut into the mask giving him an otherworldly appearance. Adding to these alien features, the mask had no mouth. Hanging from the bottom of the mask were an odd assortment of items: eagle feathers, a rattlesnake rattle, the feet of several small animals, mummified with their fur still attached. The overall effect of this macabre mobile was that of an old man's haggled beard. Sharpay realized he must be the medicine man of the village.

As the medicine man started toward her, The Big Indian gave her shoulder a quick squeeze and stepped away to the edge of the wall. Despite herself, Sharpay immediately missed the feel of him at her side. The old man slowly approached her, almost as if he was more frightened than she. He circled around her, chanting low in his throat, barely above a whisper. It didn't matter what he said since she couldn't understand any of their language. After circling her seven times, he abruptly stopped and exclaimed in a loud voice, "Hlay!"

Everyone around her, the other old men and the villagers, instantly sat down. Sharpay sat also, directly on the hard dirt ground.

Behind the medicine man, a small earthen pot sat over a fire. The medicine man retreated to the pot and, with great ceremony, poured a small amount into a mug. He signaled to two of the other men and they quickly planted themselves, one on each side of Sharpay. With lightening speed, one of them wrapped his arms around her chest, locking her arms down. The other pinched off her nose until she was forced to open her mouth, at which time the old man poured his brew into her mouth. She had no choice but to swallow. If she hadn't already been so dehydrated, she knew she would have started crying at her own helplessness.

The medicine man began chanting again, this time with much more vigor. The remaining three men started dancing around her as the medicine man continued to chant. Suddenly, the men were gone. She was alone on the ground and she looked up in amazement at the medicine man to see that his 'beard' was moving under its own accord. The rattle from the snake beat out a rhythm in concert to the medicine man's chanting and the small animal paws whipped around trying to claw at the eyes of the mask. The multitude of feathers attached to the mask began to flap and the medicine man lifted off the ground and circled around her. Overcome with an unexplained elation, Sharpay jumped to her feet and flung off the blanket, dancing around on her tiptoes trying to catch the old man who continued to soar just outside her reach. She had never in her life felt more alive and lighthearted. She was so lighthearted, in fact, that she lifted off the ground and began to float in the air with the medicine man. He smiled benevolently at her and held out his gnarled old hands for her to take. She reached out, and just as she was about to touch him, heard laughter coming from the ground.

"I never thought I'd see the day when Sharpay Evans would be sky dancing with an Indian medicine man."

Sharpay looked down and said the first thing that popped into her head. "Troy? What are you doing here?"

"Come down here and I'll tell you", he replied jovially. Troy was still wearing the navy Lava Springs knit shirt and khaki slacks with his much loved Italian loafers that he wore when they went to see Taylor. "BTW, Shar... love your outfit."

She looked down at herself and realized for the first time that she was entirely naked When had that happened? The last she remembered she was still wearing her thong panties, grimy socks and was wrapped in a blanket. She flushed a bright red and immediately found herself falling. However before she could even think to scream, she had landed safely in Troy's strong arms and he gently lowered her to the ground.

"You certainly know how to make an entrance", he said with a broad grin.

He sat her on her feet, but didn't let go. His gaze was intense as he gently ran his hands up and down her arms. Due to the massively uninhibited feeling that was continuing to wash over her, "I want you", slipped out of her mouth before she could help herself.

"I want you too, Sharpay. Believe me, I always have."

**=/\=**

"I want you too, Sharpay. Believe me, I always have", Troy murmured in his sleep.

In his dream she was flying over his head and she was completely naked, like a nude Peter Pan. She looked even better than he imagined.

Her skin was golden brown with just the tiniest spots where a bathing suit had rested. However, she had definitely been wearing less than that white tankini he saw her in at Lava Springs.

Troy swallowed hard and felt his heart start to beat faster.

As incredulous as it may seem, Troy took this moment to notice the night sky above him. After all, his naked goddess was flying through it. The stars which formed the backdrop to her aerial show were magnificent. They were the brightest he had ever seen. Immediately, Troy thought back to his one elective last semester --- astronomy. He remembered their instructor had lectured on and on about the evils of light pollution, even here in the sparsely populated southwest. It obscured the stars in the night sky and interfered with stargazing. During their field trip to an observatory near Alamogordo, Mr. Robins had made sure to point out the differences in the sky there, about six hours south of home, to the lights of Albuquerque, the largest city in the state.

All thoughts of science flew from his mind when Sharpay swooped down closer to him. Troy reached up a hand, trying to touch her, any part of her.

That's when he rolled straight off the mattress and hit the floor with a thud.

"Damn...", Troy muttered as he came awake and started to untangle himself from his covers. He hadn't had any covers when he went to sleep. His mom must have come in sometime during the night and put the bedspread on. He pulled off his sweaty t-shirt and unzipped his jeans, letting them drop to the floor. He crawled back into bed, wearing just his boxers and collapsed, hoping he could recapture the dream as sleep overtook him again.

**=/\=**

Troy lowered his head to Sharpay and lightly nipped at her lower lip. She immediately complied with his silent request and opened her mouth to his. Tentative, at first, Troy's tongue gently entered Sharpay's mouth and an unconscious moan escaped her. She could feel him smiling where their lips were attached and couldn't help but roll her eyes at his cocky self-assurance. He gained confidence now and pushed deeper into her mouth. Sharpay pulled herself closer to him and ground her pelvis against his. Now it was Troy's turn to moan. However, rather than return her blatant sexual gesture with one of his own, he gently pushed her away from him until she was standing at arms length.

"Whaa?" Sharpay's dilated eyes were unfocused and she looked confusedly up at Troy.

"We have to wait", he said calmly.

"Why?" The uncontrollable whine sounded pitiful.

Troy took a deep breath. "It's silly really, but.... Well, these people, the Nafiat, think you're a witch."

"A witch? You've got to be kidding. Why would they think that?"

"Look at it from their point of view. You come out of nowhere. You're wearing odd clothes. And...." He sighed deeply and reached out to finger her loose hair. "You have all this glorious long blonde hair --- something they've never even seen before."

"What do you mean? _Something they've never even seen before? _There are plenty of blondes around Albuquerque."

"Maybe when we come from, but not now."

"_When_ we come from?", she asked with trepidation.

"Look around you, Sharpay. There are no highways; no airplanes; no air pollution, for God's sake. And... there are no white people. Sharpay … look at me." He held her by her shoulders and looked directly into her eyes. "You time-traveled to get here."

Sharpay blinked a few times in a pointless effort to bring this crazy world into focus. How could she be so stupid? Of course, that explained everything … her missing car, the missing road, the fact that these people couldn't understand a thing she was saying. It all made sense in a goofy, sci-fi kind of way. Then she realized what Troy had just said --- "_You_ time-traveled to get here."

"_I _time-traveled to get here? But how did you get here, Troy?"

"I'm not here, Shar. I'm only part of your drug-induced delirium." Seeing her face drop at his declaration, he hastily added, "But don't worry, we can still make love. That's why I'm here. It's what we both want, right?" His voice dropped and took on a husky tone.

She nodded mutely with her large doe-like brown eyes staring unblinkingly up at him.

"Good!", he said excitedly. "In that case, you need to get a haircut."

She blinked again and once again, it didn't help. "A haircut?"

"Yep It's all part of this weird test. They gave you this illicit drug, datura, which will either kill you or cure you. Don't look so worried, Shar. If it wasn't for the drug, I wouldn't be here to help you. Anyway, you've survived this far, so chances are you'll make it. Anyway, the final test is your hair. It seems that your blonde hair is really freaking them out, so they want to get rid of it."

With a horrible thought, Sharpay asked, "You mean they want to scalp me?"

"Scalp you? Don't be ridiculous. Pueblo tribes didn't scalp people, Sharpay. You just need to get a haircut. It won't be any different than going to Mr. Larry's."

Mr. Larry was her stylist and had been performing miracles on her hair for the past three years.

"Mr. Larry? How do you know the name of my stylist?"

"Delirium, remember?"

Sharpay nodded slowly. "Oh, yeah."

He stepped closer to her and put one hand behind the back of her neck while gently massaging the pad of his thumb along her jawline. He nervously licked his lips and Sharpay almost fell apart. "Then... we can be together", he said as his voice dropped to a husky whisper.

She nodded again and tried to pull him down for another kiss when Troy, once again, pushed her away and steered her over to the salon chair which suddenly appeared in the center of the village plaza. The villagers had mysteriously vanished which was just fine with her. If this was her fantasy, then she didn't want to share Troy with anyone. But still... her hair? Was it really necessary to have her hair cut?

"Oh yes, Sharpay!", chirped three high-pitched voices simultaneously. "It is absolutely necessary."

Leah, Jackie, and Emma rushed over to Sharpay and started pushing and pulling her toward the chair. If there were ever three less likely people she could think of to share her Troy Bolton sex fantasy with, it was these three. They might be her best country club friends, but seriously...

They had her in the chair now and separated from Troy who was standing off to the side watching the four of them with curiosity.

"I read in Glamour that short hair will be all the rage this season", Jackie cooed while soothingly rubbing her hands down Sharpay's bare arm.

Leah appeared at her left side and started that same slow, stroking that Jackie was doing on her right. "She's right and think about all the sexy stars with short hair: Halle Berry, Honey Labrador, Demi Moore... I could go on, but Mr. Larry is waiting."

Sharpay was beginning to feel an odd tingling again and this time it wasn't caused by Troy. This wasn't good. And where was Emma?

"I'm right here, Sharpay", Emma answered even though Sharpay was pretty sure she didn't say anything aloud.

Sharpay looked down to see Emma slowly crawling up the chair as lithe as a panther over Sharpay's naked body until she was mere inches of the blonde's lips. Oh, God!

Before she knew what was happening, Emma had plunged her hot little tongue into Sharpay's yielding mouth. She couldn't help but respond and found herself returning the kiss while Jackie and Leah massaged her arms, thereby holding her down.

This wasn't right. She wanted Troy, not these three. And what must he be thinking … that she was gay? Was she gay?

"It's okay, Sharpay. I think it's pretty hot." Sharpay managed to pull away from Emma long enough to look over at Troy. He hadn't moved. He was still standing a few yards away, staring at her with lustful eyes.

"I'm just waiting for that haircut, baby. Then, we'll be together."

"Mr. Larry! Where's Mr. Larry? I'm ready for my haircut."

**TBC**

**Author's Notes:**

**I'm very excited to be beta reading for someone. I've never done this before and it's really hard work. Anyway, please check out "Just a Little Love" by karazorel. It's definitely worth the read.**

FYI, also, I don't if you've noticed, but when I refer to the 'gang' in the present, they are usually 'teens' or 'teenagers' or 'boys' or 'girls'. But when I refer to Sharpay in past, she's a 'woman'. Because in the past, a 17 year old would probably have a husband and family by that age.

**Real Stuff vs Made up Stuff**

The Sandia Pueblo village is approximately 4.5 hours by foot from the Petroglyph National Monument, not 2 like in the story. It has been continuously occupied since 1300 AD. I've just moved it a little bit closer to the petroglyphs, so Sharpay didn't have to walk so far.

The description of the village is as accurate as I can make it, including the ceremonial kiva where the men meet to make important decisions and women are seldom allowed.

Kanatya - "To Sharpay's ear, it sounded like ka-nat-ya."

Zuni Pueblo word for witch.

Nafiat --- "...Well, these people, the Nafiat, think you're a witch." - Troy to Sharpay

...that's what the Pueblo Indians called themselves before the Spanish showed up. Turns out that pueblo is Spanish for village and Sandia (as in Sandia Mountains) is Spanish for watermelon. All these common terms are Spanish in origin, but I can't use them because this story takes place in pre-Columbian (ie, before Columbus) time. It makes it really hard to write the stuff correctly. For instance, the hornos, those outdoor beehive ovens that people always think of when they think about Pueblo Indians, was introduced by the Spanish. So I can't use those.

Datura --- "...It's all part of this weird test. They gave you this illicit drug, datura, which will either kill you or cure you." Troy to Sharpay

Also known at Jimson weed, angel's trumpet, and about a dozen other names. Originally, I wanted to use peyote which has a long and well-known history of use among native Americans. Unfortunately, not these native Americans... Luckily, they did use datura.

Here's a quote from a website I found:

"In Native American tribes of the southwest, as is often the case with tribes elsewhere, in rites of passage, a young person coming of age would fast and pray for days in order to purify himself. In some cases, the initiate might be isolated or left in the wild alone. At the appropriate time, a Medicine person or tribal spiritual elder … might accompany the initiate to a holy place, possibly a mountain top or cave, and a tea would be made from the roots, leaves and even the seeds from the prickly seed pod of a plant called **Sacred Datura**. The individual would drink this tea and wait for visions, and the initiate would definitely have visions."

Also, "[Datura] has been used to hex and to break hexes, to produce sleep and induce dreams, and for protection from evil."

That's the use I'm going for here. In fact, from the things I've read, Sharpay got a small doze of this stuff.

Also, as my beta pointed out, how does Sharpay know all this stuff about this drug, since she's obviously having this whole conversation with herself? Is she? You'll find out more in the next chapter.

See how educational my stories are … LOL.

I'd better stop now before I bore you to tears and everyone stops reading.

Please don't forget to REVIEW!!!! Thanks j


	4. Sentence First Verdict Afterwards

**Twin Flames**

_A High School Musical fanfiction_

_by_

_GimmeABeat_

**Chapter 4: Sentence First -- Verdict Afterwards**__

Teen Version

"_Sentence first - verdict afterwards."_

_The Queen, Alice in Wonderland_

**=/\=**

"So, what have you got?", FBI Special Agent Sam Johnson asked as he walked tiredly into the situation room of the Albuquerque Law Enforcement Center.

Since this case was immediately classified as a missing person investigation and the victim was a minor, the FBI had taken charge. Unfortunately, Johnson and his team arrived at the city's police headquarters after the police had released their primary suspect, one Troy Bolton. He had read the report about the Bolton boy and wasn't terribly impressed. The kid might know more than he was saying, but Johnson didn't think he was a kidnapper. He also didn't think he was part of a devil worshiping cult, which was one of the theories he had heard tossed around. Still, he would have liked to have talked to the young man before he had a chance to 'lawyer-up'.

Detective Ruiz looked over from the SMART Board where he was jotting down some notes and grimaced slightly. Local law enforcement never liked it when the FBI came in. And how was a local department in a state with the budget of New Mexico able to afford a SMART Board? The state-of-the-art interactive whiteboards were very expensive. Even the FBI field office where Johnson worked could not afford one.

"Ah... Agent Johnson", an attractive older blonde woman rose gracefully from her seat and held out a hand to him.

Johnson returned the smile automatically, having completely forgotten his computer equipment lament of a few seconds ago. Lt. Angela Gonzales was the lead detective in the missing persons division and subsequently, Ruiz's supervisor. Johnson had worked with Angela on other cases and always enjoyed her professionalism and expertise … plus, she was easy on the eyes.

He shook her proffered hand and smiled warmly. "Lt. Gonzales, how good to see you again." Then in a more serious tone, asked, "What's going on, Angie? Tell me about this boy, Troy Bolton."

**=/\=**

"There you go, Sharpay", Mr. Larry announced as he held a large hand mirror out for Sharpay. "I think you look like a young Audrey Hepburn --- very sophisticated." He continued to work his deft fingers through her hair as he spoke.

She gazed into the mirror. To her surprise, she loved her new hairstyle. Larry was right; she did look sophisticated. He used a razor to cut the length giving it a textured look and the sides were cut and thinned to create a flicked hairstyle. Sharpay was very happy indeed. She lifted an eyebrow at her reflection and caught sight of Troy standing closely behind her.

Sharpay turned her head to look at him and, just like that, the plaza was gone.

They were now in an elegantly furnished bedroom with heavy velvet drapes covering huge floor-to-ceiling windows and romantic candlelight flickering in the shadows. The center of the room was dominated by a king-sized four-poster bed made of dark walnut. It was covered with a satin comforter in deep scarlet with mountains of pillows piled on top.

Troy quickly lifted her in her arms and she automatically locked her legs around his waist.

He lifted up her chin so he could look into her eyes. "Remember, this is your fantasy, Sharpay. It will be fabulous."

Sharpay smiled that wicked grin of hers and took Troy by the hand, leading him to the bed.

Afterward, when they were both sated, Troy spooned up behind her and pulled Sharpay close against him. Smiling, Sharpay hooked her arm around Troy's neck and pulled him around for a final kiss. In that last second before sleep overtook her, Sharpay registered that Troy's eyes had appeared black like obsidian, not the azurite blue that she so loved. However, she was beyond logical thought and as his strong arm pulled her against him, she knew she must have been mistaken.

**=/\=**

"Sharpay!!!"

Troy came awake with a start. This dream had been the most vivid he had ever had. He lifted up his sheet and groaned. Damn, he hadn't had a wet dream since he was twelve. Somehow, since the last time he had awakened, he must have removed his boxer shorts.

Troy rubbed a hand over his face in frustration. What kind of monster was he? It had only been hours since she disappeared and here he was, basically, jacking off while dreaming about her. Uggghh!

Angrily, Troy got out of bed and ripped off his sheets. He would have to sneak down to the laundry room and wash them before his mom noticed anything. That would be beyond embarrassing.

Weird thing was … in his dream, her hair had been short.

**=/\=**

Sharpay awoke with a gasp as she felt Troy pulled her tightly to him. They had slept spooned together and he had obviously awoken with more than breakfast on his mind. This was turning into the Energizer Bunny of sex fantasies --- it just kept going and going. Her brain had cleared, now that all the remnants of the drug had dissipated and she felt much more like herself.

It was morning or at least she assumed it was morning … but something was wrong. The pillow-top mattress she fell asleep on now felt like a hard, dirt floor. The satin comforter now felt and smelled like animal fur. She opened her eyes and got the shock of her life. Troy's arm, that was holding onto her almost too tightly, was several shades darker than she remembered and completely hairless. She always thought that she and Troy were majorly skin-tone compatible, but now... they didn't match at all.

"Troy?", she asked in confusion.

"Troy", echoed a voice which was decidedly not Troy Bolton's. It was an octave lower than Troy's and had an ominous quality to it. "Troooy", he grunted into her ear again.

Sharpay froze instantly. This wasn't right.

_God, please let this be part of the delirium. Please, please, please._..

She tried to pull away from him, but he locked his arm around her waist and kissed the nape of her neck. Confused as to what was happening, she started to cry, hating herself for it. Sharpay Evans did not cry.

"No, no, no!", she screamed as she pushed away from him.

**=/\=**

"No, no, no!", Troy screamed at the stupid washing machine as the load became unbalanced … yet again, causing the machine to start walking across the floor.

He didn't understand what he was doing wrong with this stupid machine. In fact, he had become so upset with the laundry that he was having problems breathing plus he had started thinking about Sharpay again. This was getting ridiculous. Out of nowhere he could hardly breath and he felt … scared. He felt scared, as in fear for his life. This didn't make any sense.

He needed some coffee. Maybe that would help.

Troy walked into the kitchen and the fear started rising again. Seated around the kitchen island, having coffee with his mom, were two men in conservative dark suits. Troy didn't recognize either of these men from the police department and for some reason this made him very uncomfortable.

"Oh Troy, I didn't realize you were awake", Lucy said smoothly, but Troy could see that she had dark circles under her eyes and a worried look on her face. "These men wanted to talk to you." Her voice was tight when she added, "... again."

"Hello, Troy", said the older of the two men as he turned to face the young man. "Actually, we haven't spoken to you before. We're federal agents; those guys last night were local boys. I'm Special Agent Johnson and this is Agent Williams. We'd like to have a few words with you, son."

He hated when strangers called him son; most of the time, he didn't even like it when his dad did it. Usually, it was a clear signal that something was wrong … like now.

**=/\=**

Tulto lurched back in surprise as the little pale one crawled on her hands and knees across the floor until she collided with the wall. She then turned and sat with her knees pulled against her chest and her back to the earthen wall, trembling violently. He held his hands out to her, hoping to calm her down.

"What is wrong? Why are you frightened?", he asked her gently.

He knew she didn't understand his language, but he thought that speaking in a calm manner would, in turn, help calm her. He honestly had no idea what was happening. Last night had been wonderful. She had come to him willingly, enthusiastically even. He hadn't had a woman since his wife died two years ago and he hadn't wanted one … until he found this exotic beauty at the Holy Place. He grew up listening to the legends of people coming from inside the rocks, legends that until yesterday, he had never believed. The elders of his village claimed that if you found one of these people, then they were destined for you. He was the one who had seen her first. His two best friends, Tha-a-ba and Turkano, reached her first, but it was his keen eyes which had spotted her tumbling out of the rock face which held the drawing of Kokopelli.

She was his. Legend proclaimed it. The priests blessed their joining. He knew she wasn't a witch; no witch could be that beautiful; plus she had survived the test which further proved that she was his. She had chosen him of all others last night. She had chosen to join with him. She was his; no one could deny it. No one _would_ deny it.

"Brother, what is wrong?", a gentle voice called out from the opening in the ceiling.

A wooden ladder fed down into the little room and was its only access point. Tulto had chosen this food storage room because of the privacy this isolated location provided. He felt that this woman would definitely appreciate seclusion. But now … well, now, she was jammed against the far wall and looked scared to death.

"Polaina", he called up, "could you come help me? Please?" He couldn't believe it. Here he was, a grown man, having to ask for help from his little sister on how to handle his new wife. The Great Spirit surely must be laughing at his misfortune.

Seconds later, the young girl, who appeared to be about 12 or 13 years old, came scrambling down the ladder. She came to an abrupt stop when she saw the devastated young woman huddled against the wall.

**=/\=**

"Tulto, what did you do?", Polaina asked her older brother.

"What do you mean? I didn't do anything." He sighed and ran his fingers through his long straight hair. "After we awoke this morning, she … she just went crazy. I do not understand what happened." He looked imploringly at the young girl. "Do something, please."

Even though she was his younger sister, Polaina was used to shouldering more than her fair share of responsibility. After his wife and son died, Tulto had changed greatly. No longer was he the carefree young man who could always bring a smile to her face. Now, he was a shell of that man. As tall as he was, Polaina never saw him stand fully erect anymore. He stood slightly stooped like an old man. She knew her proud brother was still there somewhere, but right now she just couldn't see him inside this distraught man. He looked almost as bad as the woman.

She turned to him in quiet confidence. "Do not worry, brother. You are obviously upsetting her, so leave. I will handle this; you keep Nana away. She will scare the poor girl to death."

Tulto nodded solemnly and grabbed his breech cloth from the floor, holding it to cover himself and backing toward the ladder. Under other circumstances, Polaina would have laughed at him, but now was not the time for laughing. Once he disappeared up the ladder, Polaina turned back to the forlorn young woman. She hadn't been allowed at the ceremony last night and this was the first time she had seen the stranger. She was small, no taller than Polaina herself and … delicate. Yes, delicate was the word. Her bones seemed smaller and lighter than any adult the young girl had ever seen. She was nothing like _anyone_ the young girl had ever seen. Her skin was tanned on her arms and legs, but she was unnaturally pale around her breasts and her private areas. Polaina could not even imagine what sort of clothing would leave such marks. Her eyes were very round, not slanted as normal eyes were. They were a light brown in color, like honey. It was as if her eyes hadn't been exposed to enough sunlight either --- just like her skin. Her hair … or what was left of it … was the pale yellow color of corn silk. Even when elders of her village became old, their hair never achieved this color. It was a shame that the medicine man insisted on cutting most of it all off. Polaina sighed loudly. They could have done a better job with it. The poor woman looked like a dog with mange. Maybe she would let Polaina even it out --- later, much later. Right now, Polaina had to get the woman to stop trembling.

**=/\=**

Sharpay couldn't seem to stop trembling. Nothing made any sense. She didn't understand anything that was happening to her. Reluctantly, she looked around the room, and despite her fear, Sharpay relaxed a little when the girl so effortlessly bounced down the ladder. She was obviously comfortable around the Big Indian and it brought Sharpay's anxiety level down one notch.

She was in a cave. No, that was wrong. It wasn't a cave; the walls were too smooth and they had been painted white. They looked stucco like was popular on many houses in the southwest. She must be inside one of the pueblo houses she had seen from the plaza last night. The ceiling was low with wide beams running across it, allowing barely enough room for her to stand up straight. The only light came from the ceiling hatchway and it was very dim in the room. She could see many large containers aligned in neat rows on the far side of the room and there were large, dark items hanging from the ceiling. At first she thought they were bodies and she'd landed herself in the middle of some teen slasher movie, but then she realized they were actually nothing more than ears of corn hanging suspended from the rafters. This must be some sort of storage room. The ladder, leading up to a hole in the center of the ceiling, appeared to be the only way in or out, not that she felt like exploring right now. Right now, she was more concerned with controlling her breathing and trying not to pass out.

It had all been an illusion or a hallucination or dementia or whatever it was called. She reflexively put a hand on her head to examine her hair. Oh, God! It … It felt like it had been cut with a butcher knife. If she had had a mirror she was sure she would be looking at a Britney Spears wannabe from her more wacky times. So the haircut had been real, but it obviously wasn't cut by the wonderful Mr. Larry. Mr. Larry hadn't actually been there. Troy hadn't actually been there.

Troy... Oh, God! None of it had been real. Troy hadn't made wild passionate love to her. … But someone had. The tell-tale ache in her groin was testimony to that. She had had sex, just not with whom she had thought. It was that damn Big Indian! Sharpay closed her eyes and an errant tear slid out the corner of her eye. What had she done to deserve this?

Sharpay slowly opened her eyes when she heard the girl speaking to her with a calm, smoothing voice. It was the kind of voice you would use when trying to beseech a scared cat down from a tree. She looked more closely at the girl and her breath caught. Even in the dim light, Sharpay realized she knew this girl. Squatting on the earthen floor in front of her was the girl from the petroglyph. It was Butterfly!

**=/\=**

Minutes after the agents left, the Bolton's house phone rang.

"Hello?", Troy answered tiredly.

"Dog, I've been tryin' to get you all mornin', but you wouldn't answer your phone. You know how I hate to call on the land line", Chad rattled off, all in one breath.

"Chad...", Troy sighed. "The police took my phone because it had blood on it, remember? Besides, my rents don't care anything about listening in on our calls." Chad was slightly paranoid that all of their conversations would be overheard by some nosy member of Troy's family. In truth, it was Chad's family that had all the busy-bodies. His little sister and his mom were always picking up the extension to listen in.

"I forgot about the phone, man. That's tough. I can't believe they did that. Who do they think they are? When will they give it back? And besides, wasn't that _your_ blood? Why would they even want it?" Chad's voice was taking on his "Against the Man" tone which Troy hated.

Chad's family was full of doctors and lawyers and they had way more money than his did. Troy was working this summer to help pay for college, where as, Chad was just trying to buy a car. Even though his family had plenty of money, they didn't give Chad big things, like cars. He had to earn enough to buy big ticket items himself.

"Chad... Sharpay is missing and you seem more concerned about my cellphone than her well-being."

Instantly switching gears, Chad replied more seriously, "That's actually why I called. Can you come over to my house? Everyone's meeting over here."

Chad seldom, if ever, sounded serious about anything, intense and angry --- yes, but serious --- no. Therefore, without hesitation, Troy agreed to get there as soon as possible.

**=/\=**

A pasty faced technician removed his headphones and looked over at his colleague. "What do you think of that?"

Dillon Smith brushed the powdered sugar off his t-shirt and took another bite of his donut before responding. The two men were sitting in a cramped window-less room in the sub-basement of the FBI field office in downtown Albuquerque. They were the so-called techno-geeks whom the FBI employed to monitor the electronic surveillance equipment used for telephone wire-taps, internet communications, and video surveillance. This most recent lawful interception had been requested by Special Agent Johnson less than two hours ago and it already looked promising.

"I think we oughta give Johnson a call", Smith finally replied while licking the sugar off his fingers.

**=/\=**

"So...", Johnson said to the younger agent, Jake Williams. Williams had been at the Albuquerque field office for only six months. "What do you think about this Bolton kid?"

"He acted awfully nervous. Too nervous to not be involved. That's what I think", replied Williams as he pulled the government issued Ford Taurus away from the Bolton's curb.

"I don't agree. I think he looked more embarrassed, than nervous. You know, like when you were a kid and you'd just creamed your sheets after some hot wet dream and you were trying to get them into the washer before your mom caught you." Johnson looked over at the young agent to gauge his reaction. There wasn't one. "Personally, I don't think that kid that had a thing to do with what happened, but the Evans' do and they pull some pretty powerful strings in this state. So, it looks like we investigate."

Johnson's cell phone buzzed, indicating a text message was coming in. "Damn, I hate text messages. Why can't people just talk to me for Christ's sake?"

**=/\=**

It was an hour later before Troy arrived at Chad's house. After Troy convinced his mom to let him borrow her minivan, he then had to drop her off at her aerobics class and return two DVD's to Blockbuster. This was all necessary because the police had confiscated his truck in order to search for forensic evidence. They offered no word on when he would receive any of his property back, the phone or the truck.

Chad opened the door and hurried Troy inside. "Get in here, man. You never know who's watching."

Troy had to laugh, even with everything that was happening in his life. "Chad, be serious. So now you think your mom is stalking you?"

"Not my mom, dude --- the CIA." By this time, he had walked over to the curtains and was peeking out the window through a gap in the fabric.

"Paranoid, much", Troy commented under his breath.

"Come here", his curly-haired friend urged. Chad leaned back against the wall and motioned for Troy to take his place at the window. "Look out there and tell me what you see."

Troy did as he was instructed, albeit reluctantly. "I see … my mom's minivan, Taylor's Tercel, the garbage can that you were probably supposed to bring inside..."

"Across the street, Troy! Look across the street."

"Okay, okay..." He looked again. "I see a bread truck." He looked back at his friend who was giving him a knowing look. "So what? It's just a bread truck."

"Right. Why would a bread truck be parked in my neighborhood or in anybody's neighborhood, for that matter? This isn't the 1950's; bread companies don't deliver straight to your door. It doesn't fit. Plus, an hour ago, it was a plumbing van."

Troy blinked incredulously. "Are you saying the bread truck morphed into a plumbing van?"

"No, you idiot! I'm saying the plumbing van left and was replaced by a bread truck, so we wouldn't get suspicious. Actually, that's what made me suspicious. If that plumbing van hadn't moved, I probably wouldn't have thought a thing about it. The Ferguson's who live across the street have this toddler who's always flushing crap … I mean shit … I mean stuff he shouldn't be flushing … down the toilet. The plumbers are out here at least once a week."

"Why would the CIA care anything about watching your house?"

"Not me... you. They're watching my house because we're friends. It's because of this Sharpay Evans thing. Her family probably has the governor in their back pocket."

Taylor and Gabriella picked this moment to walk in from the kitchen. Taylor was carrying a can of soda which she handed over to Chad.

"Hi, Troy", Gabriella said quietly. Troy smiled back.

"Is Chad still on his conspiracy-theory rant?", Taylor asked. "I told you before, Chad, the CIA doesn't spy on regular people within the United States, certainly not, regular boring teenagers, like us. The CIA deals with international issues."

"Whatever...", Chad grumbled.

Something snapped into place for Troy. "What about the FBI, Taylor? Could they be spying on us?"

"Well...."

"Because I had two FBI agents at my house for over an hour asking me point by point what exactly happened to Sharpay."

"Oh, boy", Taylor commented. "If the federal government really is interested in this, we'd better hurry. See, I've found out how to get Sharpay back." Troy couldn't help but notice how Gabriella seemed to bristle at the mention of Sharpay's name.

**=/\=**

"Hello, my name is Polaina", Polaina said slowly. What was that old joke she had heard from her grandfather? If you talk slowly enough, people will understand what you're saying, even if they don't speak Tiwa. She pointed to herself when she said her name and repeated it a few more times, each time indicating herself.

The pale woman blinked a few times and made a move to sit up straighter. She cleared her throat and pointed to herself. "Sharpay", she said quietly.

"Shhhh...piiiiii", Polaina repeated slowly. And then again, more quickly, "Sh'pi." She nodded, happy with herself. "Good, we will get along fine. Do not worry about my brother. He is a big softy. Now, Nana is the one you need to stay clear of. This is her house." Polaina waved her arms around, indicating everything from this small room to the entire world. "She is very stern, but you stick with me and you will be fine."

**TBC**

**Author's Notes:**

Not much to say about this one. But please!!!!!! I know most of you probably hate me right now because of the Sharpay/Other in this chapter, but trust me. This story will be TroyPay. After all, she did pick him to fantasize about.

One of the hardest parts of this story was coming up with plausible Pueblo Indian names. I didn't want to use Running Deer and Sitting Bull, etc. For example, Tulto means Sun Elk and is a Taos Pueblo name and luckily, they speak the same language as the Nafait, or Sandia Indians.

I'll admit that most of the words and names in this story are not authentic Sandia Pueblo names because those were really hard to find, but they are in some kinda Pueblo language.

Anyone care to take a guess at what Polaina's name means?

Be proud for me and please review.

Thanks


	5. Before Eating

**Twin Flames**

_A High School Musical fanfiction_

_by_

_GimmeABeat_

_beta'd by karazoel_

**Chapter 5: Before Eating... **

"_Before eating, always take a little time to thank the food."_

_-American Indian Proverb___

After the girl, Polaina, had mispronounced Sharpay's name, she started speaking to the confused blonde in her native language at break-neck speed. Stunned, Sharpay could do little but watch in amazement. Polaina was about Sharpay's height, but a bit thicker and sturdier. Her hair came to just below her ears with straight bangs above her heavy brows. Her dark eyes seemed to dance in delight as she spoke and Sharpay had a fleeting thought that she might actually be able to like this girl. However, her flat nose and high cheekbones looked too much like the Big Indian's to be a coincidence. They must be related and Sharpay didn't know what to think of that.

Sharpay still couldn't believe it, but the evidence was right there in front of her. This was definitely the same girl she had seen on the petroglyph with Troy. Even the twinkle in her eye, was the same. Sharpay wasn't one to each believe in mystical mumbo-jumbo; that was the realm she left for her mother and Ryan. They were the ones who got into all that eastern meditation and yoga crap. She didn't think yoga accomplished anything that a good Piloxing class couldn't do just as well. Yet, here she was, in the flesh --- a centuries old stick figure, literally come to life.

Muttering to herself, Polaina looked around the room until she spotted a small stone box in the corner. She quickly threw off the stone lid and began frantically searching through it. Sharpay slumped against the wall, barely able to support herself, but at the same time intently watching the young girl's every movement.

**=/\=**

Polaina couldn't believe she was doing this, but the woman had to have something to wear.

This stone box hadn't been opened since her sister-in-law died. Tulto had put some of his wife's things in it when he moved back into their mother's house. As was their custom, upon marriage the groom moved in with his wife's family. When his wife died, he returned to his mother's house.

The first thing Polaina found was a butter-soft white leather blanket that their mother had made for the baby. It was made out of the softest deer-skin Polaina had ever seen. The baby... That was the real reason Tulto hid away all evidence of his life with his wife, P'ah-tah-zhuli. She died soon after delivering their stillborn son. The child hadn't even received a name. Polaina clutched the blanket to her chest briefly and then, just as quickly, put it back in the chest. That was in the past and she didn't have time to dwell on it now.

There it was. She reached in and pulled out some loosely woven cotton material and a brightly colored belt. They had belonged to P'ah-tah-zhuli. With resignation, she lifted out the treasured clothing and hurried back to Sharpay's side.

**=/\=**

The girl returned and continued on in her ceaseless monologue as she dressed Sharpay. She pulled Sharpay's arms up and surprisingly Sharpay didn't object. Although if this was because she instinctively trusted the girl, or she was simply going into shock, Sharpay wasn't sure. Polaina efficiently draped the material around Sharpay and tied it, toga style, at her left shoulder. It hung loosely to just below her knees. The dress looked like a sack until Polaina looped a brightly colored belt around her waist.

Tsking loudly, the native girl looked with disdain down at Sharpay's feet. Sharpay noticed that the girl was barefoot. Well, she certainly couldn't run around without any shoes. Polaina must have sensed this too because she ran back to the box and returned quickly with a pair of shoes, of a sort. They were woven sandals and looked like something her mother would have made during her macrame crafting phase.

**=/\=**

Polaina helped Sh'pi into P'ah-tah-zhuli's yucca fiber sandals. They were only supposed to be for special occasions like the corn dance held to ensure a bountiful harvest. Her mother would probably be very upset at Polaina's decision to give them to this woman, but Polaina felt it was justified because the woman's feet were as soft as a baby's bottom.

**=/\=**

After completely dressing, including that pair of oddly comfortable sandals, Polaina led Sharpay up the ladder and into another room. It was empty and had two entries: the hole in the floor, which they had just used, and a small doorway in one wall. The doorway reminded Sharpay of a hatchway in a World War II destroyer she had seen once while on vacation in San Diego. The hatch was about a foot off the ground and even Sharpay had to duck slightly to go through it. After following Polaina through it, she found herself in a well-lit room with another doorway that led out onto the patio which was the roof of someone else's home. Sharpay was surprised to see that some of the light came from several small windows set into the outer wall. These windows did not open, but had fixed panes made of sheets of a thin semi-transparent stone. The windows were opaque, but still allowed light to enter. This room was just as devoid of furniture as the others. Along one wall, two poles stuck out of the wall and a smaller pole was suspended from them by rope. Furs and blankets were laid over the hanging pole and Sharpay suspected this was their bedding. A fireplace was built into one corner and a blackened cooking pot stood beside it, along with some gourd dippers. The fire had burned down to coals and Sharpay realized she had missed breakfast. However, on a low flat stone next to the fire sat several rolled tubes of a paper-thin cornbread.

Polaina grabbed several of them and handed half to Sharpay, explaining that they were called mowa. She gratefully accepted, only then realizing how long it had been since she had last eaten. The mowa turned out to be surprisingly good. They were purple-gray in color and melted in her mouth when she ate them. Just as they were finishing their meal by washing it down with fresh water, two older women entered the room. One was quite elderly and she quietly hobbled over to the far side of the room where a set of three boxes sat on the floor.

The young girl took the lead and led Sharpay over to the other woman. Polaina introduced Sharpay as Sh'pi. Polaina told Sharpay in a combination of speech and sign language that this woman's name was Paxopatona. Paxopatona was an older and more weathered version of Polaina. Therefore, Sharpay was reasonably certain they were mother and daughter.

Paxopatona looked Sharpay up and down and silently studied her. Finally satisfied, she pointed over to the boxes and announced in a loud, clear voice, "Men-t'arata-hi." Polaina visibly relaxed and bowed quickly to her mother and pulled Sharpay over to where the elderly woman had already started working.

She knelt over one of the large stones which was about two and one-half feet long by one and one-half feet wide, and set at an angle of about thirty degrees with the floor. A box was built around each stone and it was filled with dried corn. By rubbing a cube-like stone up and down over the kernels, the woman ground the corn into meal.

Suddenly, a voice rose up high and clear above the rhythmic scraping sound of the grinding stones. Sharpay looked over to see that Polaina's mother, Paxopatona, had taken her place at the middle stone, swaying back and forth with a rhythmic swing as the elderly woman her joined in song.

**=/\=**

Polaina led Sh'pi to the empty stone and sat her down next to it.

"This is the metate", Polaina explained to Sh'pi, pointing to the large stone set into the floor. "This is the mano." She held up the smaller, rectangular stone and showed it to Sh'pi. She pointed several times to the stones and repeated their names, having Sh'pi mimic her. Polaina thought the young woman was a very quick study. Polaina picked up a handful of corn and showed it her. "Corn is life. We live or die as the corn grows. And everyday we must grind the corn to make the meal that we use to make our other food. Now watch as I make the meal."

**=/\=**

Sharpay stared in wonder as the young girl merrily sprinkled dried corn on the large stone and rubbed the smaller one against it. To Sharpay, it looked like how a pioneer woman would rub clothes back and forth on a washboard. A young girl of about eight years old suddenly appeared and knelt at the opposite end of the trough. She smiled shyly at Sharpay and scooped up the crushed corn and moved it to the middle trough. Sharpay then realized that each stone must be smoother than the one before it, much like the technique she used when filing her nails. She started with the coarser side of the nail file and then switched to the finish side to complete the nail's shaping. She also noted that Polaina was positioned at the coarse end where most of the work occurred. Polaina stopped grinding and indicated towards Sharpay.

"You've got to be kidding?", she scoffed. "You actually expect me to … to … work? I'm Sharpay Evans. My family owns Lava Springs Country Club, plus loads of other stuff. I don't work, sweetie. I pay people to grind corn for me." She turned in a huff and marched over to the door only to find it suddenly blocked by a man carrying a large mallet. He looked menacing. Sharpay slowly backed away and returned to Polaina's side. "Okay, so how does this work exactly?"

**=/\=**

Polaina tried to hide her smile when Sh'pi became frightened by the drummer. With a puzzled look on his face, the man retreated back outside and shortly thereafter a flute began to play a tune matching her mother's song and a drum beat began a steady thrum synchronizing the women and their work.

Sh'pi had skinny arms and weak, smooth hands, but Polaina was confident it wouldn't take long to toughen her up.

**=/\=**

"You know how to get Sharpay back?", Troy ask Taylor excitedly. "How? What do we do?"

"_We_ don't do anything. You're the one who has to do all the work."

Troy looked confused, but before he could question her, Ryan Evans walked into the room from the direction of the kitchen.

"Hi, guys", Ryan said casually. "Is what Chad said about NCIS watching his house really true?"

"NCIS?", Taylor repeated with a distinct attitude in her voice. "Chad? What are you telling people?"

"Well, that was my earlier guess, before I realized it was the FBI."

Taylor rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's idiotic statement, but she didn't comment. This wasn't easy for her considering it was she and Troy who had finally convinced him it was the FBI and not the CIA. She had no idea where he came up with NCIS. Taylor sighed; thank goodness he was cute.

"I'm glad you made it, Ryan", Taylor said. "Now we can get started."

"Glad you made it?", Troy questioned. "Where'd he come from?"

"Ryan parked a couple of blocks away and came through the neighbor's backyard … you know because of the surveillance", Chad explained in a whisper.

"It wouldn't look good to have the brother of the missing girl acting all friendly with their number one suspect", Taylor explained.

"Person of interest", Troy corrected. "I should know. They called me that no less than a dozen times last night."

Gabriella walked up behind Troy and wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her head on his shoulder. "Poor baby."

"Oh, shit!", Chad suddenly exclaimed. "How could I be so stupid? If they're outside my house in a panel van with no windows, it's probably loaded with parabolic microphones and stuff. They're listening to us right now!"

"We've got it covered, Chad", Taylor told him with the confidence of an academic decathlon captain. "Gabby?"

Gabriella smiled shyly and walked to the coffee table to retrieve a large shoebox. Inside was a mishmash of complicated looking electronic components with wires running in a jumbled mess throughout the device.

Chad looked at it doubtfully. "That looks like my mom's kitchen junk drawer."

"It's an audio jammer. With this device, all they'll hear is static", Gabriela explained proudly. "I made it for my ninth grade science fair project." She paused for a second, blushed and added, humbly, "It won."

"So how's it work?", Ryan asked as he reached out a hand to touch one of the wires.

Taylor swatted his hand away. "We don't have time to explain it. It would take … way too long."

Chad bristled at this. "Are you calling us dumb jocks?"

"Ryan's not a jock", was Taylor's sly comment.

"Umm, actually, I used to play baseball --- well, it was actually t-ball, but still...", Ryan shrugged.

"Can we get back to talking about how to get Sharpay back?", Troy asked impatiently.

"Good idea", Taylor said authoritatively. "We've got it all laid out on the kitchen table."

**=/\=**

"Ow", Sharpay moaned as slumped down next to Polaina at the end of the workday. With the exception of a midday trip to the river to gather water, she had ground corn continually for the entire day. Her arms and shoulders ached; hell, even her fingers ached. Who knew that fingers could get sore muscles? She held her hands up to study them. Her nails were ruined, chipped and torn and the color was almost completely scratched off. Every knuckle was scraped from when she had slipped with the, what had Polaina called it? ...Right, the mano … stupid mano and stupid corn meal.

Had it really only been one day? It felt like a week. She had to figure out a way to get out of here. Maybe if she could get back to the petroglyphs...

Before she could think more about this, Sharpay found herself being pulled to her feet by Paxo-Who'sIt. She had heard Polaina call her Jija, which was easier to say. However, Sharpay was reasonably sure jija meant mother, and she didn't think this stern woman would want the so-recently-reformed-witch to address her as such. She opted to say nothing, which seemed to suit the woman just fine.

The older woman hauled Sharpay over to the cook fire and handed her an earthen bowl, painted with intricate geometrical lines, both inside and out. Then, she stirred a sooty pot of clay with a stick and Sharpay saw corn, dark beans, some kind of meat, and other unidentifiable foods floating in the stew. The older woman grunted at Sharpay and indicated for her to hold her large bowl out so the stew could be poured into it. The stew smelled really good and Sharpay's stomach made a decidedly unladylike growling noise. Next, Polaina's mother picked up a stack of corn tortillas, placed them on a clay plate and walked back to the middle of the room. Sharpay followed, carrying the steaming hot bowl and hoping to be allowed to put it down before burning her hands.

The mother placed the tortilla plate on the floor, and snapped at Sharpay to place her bowl next to it. She did so and stepped back, not sure what to do now.

**=/\=**

Dinner was ready. Polaina was very happy. It had been hard work babysitting Sh'pi all day and she was hungry. Jija called out to her siblings that it was time to eat and her younger sister, Sayap, was the first one into the room. She was eight and had helped with grinding the corn until noontime when she was allowed to go play. Polaina thought she probably worked harder at play than when she did her chores. Next was her brother, Shyuote, he was two years older than Polaina and had been working in the corn fields all day with their father. Tara followed in after him, having to stoop as he lifted his leg to enter through the hatch-like opening which served as a doorway.

The family squatted around the large bowl and waited. Finally, all eyes were drawn to the doorway which silhouetted a tall figure against the setting sun behind him. Sh'pi gasped as Tulto entered; he had to nearly bend in half to come through the door --- such was his height.

His eyes quickly scanned the room and stopped when he saw Sh'pi. He held her gaze briefly before letting his eyes drop to the floor. Polaina thought he looked ashamed. Tulto hung his bow on a rack of antelope antlers which served as a wall hook. Then he took his place with the family. Sh'pi stood outside the circle and looked on quietly.

**=/\=**

Polaina motioned for her to join them and Sharpay slipped into the circle next to the girl and directly opposite to Tulto. Everyone reached for a tortilla and Sharpay cautiously reached out and took the last one on the plate. She discretely lifted it to her mouth and took a bite.

The little girl, Sayap, started giggling until her mother shushed her with a stern word. Sharpay stopped mid-bite and tried to figure out what she had done wrong. Then, she saw it.

The others were squatting on their haunches and dipping the folded tortilla into the single group bowl, using the tortilla as a primitive spoon, scooping the stew onto it and quickly lifting it to their mouths. Thus they were able to eat the stew, vegetables, meat and finally the spoon itself.

Sharpay slowly reached her folded tortilla into bowl and retrieved a small amount of stew. Apparently the faux pas of 'double dipping' didn't exist here.

"Hmmm", Sharpay exclaimed involuntarily. Despite her trepidation, the stew was excellent. Plus, she received her first smile from Paxopatona at her obvious complement to the chef.

After dinner, Paxopatona, engaged Sharpay once again to help with kitchen duties. Luckily, there wasn't much to wash. They carried what there was out of the house and scrubbed them thoroughly with sand and then, rinsed them very sparingly with precious water. The sun was just setting in the west and Sharpay noticed that it didn't look any different than her own sun. It was the same sun, of course. She just thought it would look different, somehow. So much was different here and yet, so much was still the same. Sighing, she followed Paxopatona back inside. She had finally figured out how to say the woman's name, even if everyone smiled slightly every time she said it.

The two girls, Polaina and Sayap, had pulled the blankets off the wall and were spreading them out on the floor when they reentered. Sharpay's heart started to beat a little faster and she quickly scanned the room, searching for the Big Indian, or Tulto, as Polaina had told her her brother was called.

Sayap pulled on her father's hand and beckoned to him, repeating the word, Tara, enough times that Sharpay knew that must be the word for father. With a gentle smile on his weather-worn face, he sat down and placed her on his lap. The other family members, with the exception of Tulto, joined around him and the old man started a low, sing-song recitation which seemed to captivate everyone in the room. With a small smile, Sharpay realized that he was telling them the equivalent of a bedtime story. Her smile, however, was short-lived when Tulto came to stand directly behind her and gently placed his hand on her shoulder.

Two days ago, Sharpay Evans would have fought tooth and nail to get away from this man, but sadly all the fight had been worked out of her. She inhaled raggedly and followed him out of the room. Minutes later they were back in their dark, hole-in-the-ground. Tulto spread the sleeping fur on the ground. In the family's sleeping room, they only used blankets to lay upon the hard floor, but it was much cooler here, in what was, in effect, a cellar. Sharpay's stood nervously next to the ladder and watched him.

**=/\=**

Tulto smiled to put his pale bride at ease. He had been pleased to see how nicely she was fitting into the family. His sister told him, in confidence, that she liked her. However, his mother was still openly hostile and as it was his mother's house, his father would go along with whatever his mother said.

Paxopatona was angry that he would bring this stranger into her house when their culture dictated that a newly married couple join the wife's clan. Of course, she had no clan and according to his mother, she wasn't a real wife; she was nothing but a slave, concubine. Tulto didn't feel that way at all. Maybe time would change things.

He sighed and started removing his clothes for sleep. He heard her gasp and looked up to see that she had turned her back to him like a shy young girl on her wedding night. Tulto chuckled at that vision of his magnificent lover. She was anything but shy.

After undressing he settled down on the fur and called to her.

"Sse." Tulto had decided to call her Sse, corn silk, because of her hair. He understood why the priests had to cut it off, but he wished it didn't have to be so. It was so lovely, the way the wind swept through her golden locks. She glanced over her shoulder and he motioned for her to join him.

Sse shook her head from side to side and slowly slid down to the bottom of the ladder.

Tulto decided to do nothing. She came to him last night and in that way, she became his. He knew she would come to him again, but he would never force her.

**=/\=**

Sharpay held onto the ladder for dear life. She could hear the voices from the rest of the family slowly fade to silence as they settled down for sleep. Tulto rolled over with his back to her, and soon she heard him snoring. On one hand, she was comforted by the fact that he had not forced himself on her; but at the same time, she felt it was just a matter of time. She knew she had to get out of here. Therefore, as she slowly curled up on the cold stone floor and succumbed to sleep, Sharpay vowed that she would get home. She would find her way back to the petroglyphs. Because if she had come through that damn rock, she could very well go back the same way.

**=/\=**

Taylor was in her element. "Okay, here's what I've discovered from researching my uncle's books."

She had the Danforth's kitchen table covered in old, musty, smelly books and notebooks filled with her barely legible handwriting. No one would ever accuse Taylor McKessie of having girly-girl handwriting with big loopy script and little smiley faces inside the o's. From the looks of this chicken scratch, Troy knew she was destined to be a doctor.

"There's a legend as old as time itself...", Taylor began.

"Should I light some candles?", Chad asked with the beginnings of serious skepticism. "Because this is beginning to sound like a séance."

"Shut up, Chad!", Troy barked at him. "Go ahead, Taylor. Just ignore him."

Taylor nodded. "I usually do." Chad crossed his arms defensively over his chest and pouted silently. "Anyway... Neopkwai'i, **distinguished by his hunch-back, dancing pose, and flute, is the only anthropomorphic petroglyph to have a name, an identity, and an established gender..."**

"Wait a minute", Ryan asked, "who's Neo-what's-it? I thought Kokopelli was the hump-backed flute player guy."

"He is... actually, They're the same person … um … I mean deity. Neopkwai'i is the Sandia Pueblo word for the Kokopelli. Kokopelli is what the Hopi Pueblo Indians call him."

"You mean they didn't speak the same language?"

"That's right. Even tribes which were separated by only a hundred miles or so might have different languages."

"Like in China", added Gabriella.

"Exactly", Taylor agreed as she flipped open a book and started skimming the text.

"Stop! Look, Taylor... I enjoy a good history lecture as much as the next guy", Troy said in exasperation, causing Chad to snicker behind his hand. "But you need to get your head in the game and tell us what you found out about getting Sharpay back."

Taylor was chagrined. "You're right. I'm sorry; I just get carried away. Here goes … the straight vanilla version with no side trips." She looked around the room at the faces of each teenager in turn. "Sharpay fell through a time portal which was activated by touching the figure of Kokopelli. The portal was activated because it had Troy's blood on it."

"Say what?", Troy asked in complete amazement.

**TBC**

**Author's Notes:**

Piloxing... I read somewhere that Ashley Tisdale took a Piloxing class, so I threw it in there. It's Pilates with boxing --- sounds like fun.

Unlike the stereotype of American Indians, the Pueblo Indians were a matriarchal society. The wife owned the house and children were considered hers. A husband would become a part of his wife's family upon marriage.

"Men-t'arata-hi." translates to "You will work." (I think).

I thought all these weird names might be hard to keep track of, so I made this character list to help. You haven't met all of these characters yet.

**Native American Character List: **

Tsirege – Tha-a-ba's wife, means little bird

P'ah-tah-zhuli - Toltu's 'first' wife, means little deer bean

Paxopatona -Tulto's mother, also mother of Shyuote, Sayap and Polaina

Polaina – Tulto's sister

Sayap – Tulto's youngest sister

Shyuote - Tulto's younger brother

Sse – corn silk, what Tulto 'renames' Sharpay

Tha-a-ba – Tulto's friend, brother to Turkano, Thing 2

Tulto – The Big Indian's real name

Turkano – Tulto's friend, brother to Tha-a-ba, Thing 1

Thanks for taking the time to read and if you would leave a review, I would really appreciate it.

-j


	6. You cannot escape

**Twin Flames**

_A High School Musical fanfiction_

_by_

_GimmeABeat_

_beta'd by karazoel_

**Chapter 6: You cannot escape...**

"_You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."_

_-Abraham Lincoln_

Warning: Attempted rape in this chapter.

**=/\=**

It was four days before Sharpay got her chance to escape. Sharpay, or Sse as she was now called by everyone but Polaina, was sent to fetch water … alone. Since Tulto had named his pet or slave or whatever she was, everyone had completely forgotten that she already had a name. Only her little friend, Polaina, respected her enough to call her by her real name, mispronounced as it was.

Sse carried the water pitcher on her head as she had been taught and followed the other women the quarter mile down to the river. She moved purposefully slow so that by the time she had filled her container, the other women were already heading back up the hill to the village.

Quickly, Sharpay (to hell with Sse) pulled a gourd out of her beloved hobo bag which she had managed to secret into her dress. She was thrilled when she had found it placed in the same stone box which had held her clothes and sandals. Tulto must have put the bag there. She quickly filled the gourd with the water she would need for her walk back to the petroglyphs. The large pitcher would be too heavy to carry and besides, she only needed enough water to make it to the monument. She would not be making the return trip.

Checking that no one was in sight, she set off. All she had to do was follow the river south for about an hour and a half and then head west for half an hour. Luckily, the turn-off for the petroglyphs was well marked by a distinctive cottonwood tree which had been split in half by an old lightening strike. The well-shaded walk along the bosque, that belt of vegetation which grew near the Rio Grande, would feel like a stroll. It was hot, but she was very motivated and the shade of the numerous cottonwoods would help. If she just paced herself, Sharpay knew she would be fine.

What she didn't know was how she was supposed to be feeling about everything that had happened to her. First there was Tulto. She had willingly slept with him, albeit during a drug hallucination in which she thought he was Troy Bolton. That big, dumb Indian was surprisingly gentle and unassuming. Other than insisting that she sleep in the same room with him, he hadn't bother her. He had even made a separate sleeping area for her.

Sharpay knew that a huge factor in dealing with life here was Tulto's little sister, Polaina. She was Sharpay's rock, that one she could depend on every day to bring what little sunshine there was into her life. Having seen that image of her on the petroglyph with Troy, she now knew had been prescience. She was seeing someone who was going to become a big part of her life. Sharpay felt a little guilty at leaving the girl without telling her, but she knew she would get over it as soon as she walked into the nearest mall or slept in her very own bed again. At least that's what she told herself.

Then there was Troy, himself. He was someone she couldn't seem to _not_ think about. Whenever she wasn't slaving to survive in this archaic land, he was continually on her mind. She even dreamed about him, and what strange dreams they were... Troy in a police station, Troy washing his laundry, Troy in a heated discussion with Taylor McKessie. The oddest part was every time she fell asleep, it was like she was dreaming another episode of "The Life of Troy Bolton".

In thinking about all these things, Sharpay wondered, not for the first time, why Troy had been able to see Polaina that day too. If Sharpay saw the young girl as some sort of omniscient vision of what was going to happen to her, then why had Troy seen her? Was he also destined to come back through time to this place? Maybe to search for her? She could only hope. In the meantime, she wasn't going to be some Cinderella waiting for a prince to come and save her. She was going to save herself. Sharpay started humming and then, singing The Cheetah Girls song, Cinderella, as she walked along. Never were truer words ever written.

_I don't wanna be like Cinderella  
Sittin' in a dark cold dusty cellar  
Waiting for somebody, to come and set me free _

**=/\=**

Tha-a-ba and Turkano watched the witch from a ridge above the river. No matter what anyone said, they knew she was a witch, for surely she had bewitched their friend, Tulto. He could do nothing but speak of how wonderful she was and how much he knew she would grow to love him.

Ha! They also knew that after that first night, she had refused to take him to her bed. Or at least that was the rumor they had heard. And those types of rumors were seldom wrong.

And now... she was running … or rather, walking … away … back toward the sacred drawings. Tha-a-ba looked over at his brother.

"Should we go tell Tulto that his woman is leaving him?"

Turkano smiled lasciviously. "I don't think so. If she doesn't want him, maybe she'll want us."

**=/\=**

Sharpay made it to the large downed tree, which marked the turn-off from the river path, and decided to take a much needed break. The large cottonwood hung out over the water and the lithe teenager easily walked out on its trunk. She sat down, dangling her legs out over the water, and stretched back, lifting her head to the sun and enjoying the feel of it on her face. It was quite beautiful here; she was really going to miss it … not! Sharpay chuckled to herself.

She pulled out one of the tubes of mowa bread she had taken when planning for her flight and bit into it. Now, these things, she would miss. Maybe she could get Maria, the Evans family cook, to make them for her, once she got back. Shielding her eyes, Sharpay looked west toward where she knew the petroglyphs lay. She was walking at a good pace; dancing and pilates class kept her in good physical condition and she was confident she would make it well before sunset. She was about to start on the hardest part of the journey when she would have to leave the shelter of the trees and walk across the desert.

Studying the position of the sun, she tried to estimate how much time had elapsed since she left. Like most twenty-first century teens, Sharpay had always used her cellphone as a watch. Therefore, it was more out of habit than anything else that she pulled her Sidekick out of her bag. There was always that tiny hope that it would miraculously work now and somehow be able to place a call through the time-space continuum to reach home. Sharpay flipped it open and sighed --- no such luck. The phone was still busted. On closing it, she stared out at the slow moving current in the river. What was the point of keeping a broken phone anyway? She'd be home, sleeping in her own bed, by tonight and Daddy would buy her a new phone tomorrow. She should just throw it away. Sharpay lifted the Sidekick over her head and...

**=/\=**

Tulto's woman sat on the trunk of the huge fallen tree with her back to them, completely oblivious to Turkano and his brother as they crept up on her. She raised her hand to throw something into the river and Turkano seized the opportunity, rushed out onto the tree and grabbed her wrist, causing her to drop what she held. It landed with a plop about a foot from the edge of the river.

"Oooo, the pale witch just got a whole lot paler", Turkano said to Tha-a-ba, but he was staring straight at Tulto's woman. He laughed at his own cleverness, but then stopped when he saw the open look of hatred in her eyes. Turkano hauled back with all his strength and backhanded her across the face. The strength of his blow was such that she went flying off the tree trunk and directly into the river.

"Turkano, what are you doing? Are you crazy?" Tha-a-ba was shocked and immediately started to wade out to help her when Turkano stopped him.

"Don't worry yourself, little brother. I'll get her." Turkano said as he jumped off the tree and into the water.

**=/\=**

The river was very shallow at this point and was only about a foot deep. Sharpay resurfaced sputtering and mad as hell. This was so much worse than smashing her phone and hitting her hand. How dare he! She couldn't believe that bastard, Thing 1. He'd now hit her twice.

Before she could even thinking of any really appropriate profanity to fling at this … jerk, he was on her again. Thing 1 grabbed onto her dress and roughly pulled her back with him to the shore, flinging her around and slamming her face first onto the muddy bank.

Any thought of colorful insults or witty jibes disappeared instantly … to be replaced by complete panic. She had to get away from him. Sharpay started crawling as fast as she could up the slimy bank. She kept slipping, so that for every two steps forward, she slipped one step back.

From out of nowhere, Thing 1 was on her. She was half-way up the muddy bank when he landed on her back and roughly pushed her face into the mud. She couldn't breathe; she was drowning, but instead of water, she was drowning in mud. The mud was in her mouth, in her throat, up her nose. She was suffocating and … and … then, she felt him shove her dress up above her waist and he was touching her, groping her with his muddy hands. She tried to lift her upper body out of the mud, but he was holding her down with a hand pressed heavily into the center of her back. Her heart pounded in her chest, trying to find the oxygen to keep herself alive. And then, she felt it, as if from far away. Thing 1 was nudging at her opening, but not in the expected location. Instead, he had positioned himself where no one had any right to be. Her entire body stiffened in terror.

_God, just let me die before this happens._

**=/\=**

Curiously enough, the four East High teens standing in the middle of the Danforth kitchen represented a perfect cross-section of the student population: academic, sports, and the arts. However, each of them stared at Taylor with the same look of amazement and confusion on their faces.

"Troy's blood?", Gabriella was the first to recover enough to ask a question.

"Yep. Remember, how Troy cut his hand on the volcanic rock?" The group nodded in unison. "Well, some of the blood dripped onto the glyph of Kokopelli. Then, Sharpay came along and touched the glyph..."

"Actually, she kicked it", Troy corrected.

Ryan raised an eyebrow and deadpanned, "Sounds like something she'd do."

"... okay, she kicked it", Taylor corrected as she continued with her explanation. "Because the blood was still wet, it activated a portal and Sharpay fell into it."

"You mean anyone could have fallen into that thing?"

"But where did she go?"

"How do we get her back?"

Questions came flying at Taylor all at once. She held up her hand to quiet them down.

"One at a time, please. No, Gabriella. I think it would have affected only Sharpay, no one else would have gotten sucked in." She didn't elaborate and Gabriella could tell she was leaving something out.

Looking at Ryan, she said, "I think it's a matter of when, not where. It's a time portal; it only moved her through time, not space. So she's still in Albuquerque … just not in our time. And..."

Troy looked a little nervous now. Taylor contined, "I think she's in the past because of that phone I found yesterday."

"Hang on a sec", Chad exclaimed. "You mean that hunk of old metal you found really _is_ Sharpay's phone?"

Taylor nodded. "She had it with her in her handbag when she went into the rock."

"Wow..."

Troy was still trying to keep everyone on track. They could figure out phone details later. "So... how do we get her back?", he repeated.

"Okay, from what I've read, if your blood opened the portal for Sharpay. Then, her blood will open it for you. You go in, find her, and the two of you come back together."

Troy blinked once and looked puzzled. "But... how are we supposed to get Sharpay's blood if she's in the past?"

"Yeah... weelll... that's a problem I haven't figured out yet", Taylor admitted.

"Umm, guys? I think I know where to get Sharpay's blood", Ryan said quietly.

**=/\=**

As suddenly as it had started, it was over. In the next instance, Thing 1 was gone and Sharpay could breath again. Someone had turned her on her side. She started coughing out the mud and then, seconds later, she was vomiting all over the ground. Gentle hands patted her back and helped hold up her shaking body. Then, someone was pouring water over her face and gently wiping away the mud. She opened her eyes, but her eyesight was a bit blurry. Sharpay heard shouting and skin making contact with skin along with splashing water. Blinking furiously, Sharpay gradually brought the scene into focus. Tulto was standing in the river beating the shit out of Thing 1. How had he found her?

She looked slowly over to her right and froze. Thing 2 was squatting right next to her. She quickly realized it had been he who lifted her out of the mud and washed off her face. Reacting purely by instinct, she started to scuttle backwards on her hands and feet, but succeeded in only becoming more entrapped in the mud. To her surprise, Thing 2 held his hands open before her; otherwise, he didn't move.

**=/\=**

Tha-a-ba had always known Turkano wasn't quite sane, but he was his brother and you protected your family. He had hurt women before, but not like this. This was beyond evil. Tha-a-ba had to do something to stop him.

When he saw Turkano hit the woman, he wanted to help. He really did; but to his shame, Tha-a-ba had to admit that he was a coward. He was afraid of his brother. Therefore instead of confronting him directly, Tha-a-ba decided to go for help. They were over an hour from the village and he knew in his heart that he wouldn't be able to find help in time. He ran away anyway.

Tha-a-ba clambered up the river bank, running up the river path which headed back toward the village. He circled around a large juniper scrub and collided directly into Tulto who had obviously been running at break-neck speed, following their trail.

**=/\=**

"Tulto...", Tha-a-ba started, but Tulto cut him off.

"Where is she?", Tulto growled as he glared down at his friend. The impact of the two colliding had sent the smaller man crashing to the ground.

Poliana came to find her brother when Sse had failed to return from gathering water. He found her water jug at the river's edge and quickly found her tracks heading south, staying close to the river. He scowled when he imagined her running away from him and trying to return to … wherever she came from. However, after a few minutes on the trail he saw two more sets of prints join in, following along behind her. He recognized these prints immediately and took off at a run to catch them. He had long suspected that Turkano wasn't right in the head and he just hoped he could get there in time.

With a sigh, Tulto offered his hand to Tha-a-ba and pulled him to his feet.

Pointing back down the path he had just traveled, Tha-a-ba explained, "Turkano... he's hurting her. You've got to..."

Tulto had already disappeared down the path and never heard the end of the sentence. He didn't need to. There was no time to waste. Within minutes he was flying down the embankment towards where Turkano held Sse pinned to the muddy ground. Turkano had removed his breechclout and Sse's dress was pushed above her waist, leaving little room to guess what was about to happen.

Without a word, the big man leaped into the air and launched himself at the other man hitting him full force and sending both of them flying into the river. Normally, Tulto was very good at controlling his temper. In fact, most would say he did not even have a temper. However, now all he saw was red and all he felt was the need for revenge.

Turkano was naked, so Tulto pulled him up out of the water by his long black hair. He held onto him that way and began to beat him with his fist. His first punch broke the smaller man's nose. Tulto heard and felt the bone crack. Subsequent strikes landed on his chest, stomach and then back to his face again. Tulto had lost control; he realized this, but didn't seem to be able to stop himself.

**=/\=**

Tha-a-ba was in a quandary. Turkano was his brother, but he had almost committed an unforgivable act. Even so, did that mean he should sit back and let Tulto kill him for it? And how would Tulto feel later if he killed one of his oldest friends? All three of them had grown up together.

Taking a deep breath, Tha-a-ba waded quickly into the river and stopped directly behind his brother. With all his strength he clamped his arms around Turkano and held him, pinning his arms roughly to his sides. Tha-a-ba would have never been stronger enough to hold his larger brother if Tulto had not already beaten him to near unconsciousness.

Breathing hard, Tulto stepped back and gasped out, "What are you doing?"

"I'm holding him for you so you can kill him", Tha-a-ba stated as calmly as possible.

"What? What are you talking about, 'Ba? I'm not going to kill him."

"You're wrong, Tulto. A couple of more sold hits and he will be dead."

Tulto shook his head and tried to clear the thoughts from his murderous brain. "What was I thinking?"

"You were thinking that you needed to avenge her woman's honor. I think you have accomplished that, my friend. And now, I think it is time to stop."

**=/\=**

Tulto took a closer look at Turkano now that his bloodlust had stilled slightly. One of his eyes was completely swollen shut. The other was already starting to swell. Blood was pouring out of his broken nose and Tulto would never know how close he came to driving a piece of broken cartilage into his brain.

What was he thinking? He wasn't a killer, especially not to someone he once considered his friend. However, when he saw what this monster was doing to his woman...

Sse … where was she?

He had been so focused on exacting his revenge on Turkano that he had forgotten about the most important person here. Looking back to the shore, the big man quickly found the small woman sitting crouched in the mud near the river's edge, watching the men with frightening intensity. Tulto looked back to the smaller brother, the man whom he still considered a friend.

"Can you get him to shore alone?", Tulto asked, not without sympathy in his voice.

Tha-a-ba replied gravely, "I will manage."

Tulto took leave of them and quickly shuffled through the knee deep water heading directly to shore. He knelt down in front of Sse and tried to assess her injuries. Slowing, he reached out to her...

**=/\=**

"Don't touch me!", Sharpay shouted in a cracked voice that would have shocked and embarrassed the old Sharpay Evans. "Please...", she added plaintively as she hugged herself more tightly and started rhythmically rocking back and forth.

She hurt. She hurt all over. Her face hurt where that monster had hit her. Her lungs hurt where she had gasped for oxygen. Her stomach muscles hurt where she had thrown up. Her dignity hurt. She knew intelligently that it could have been so much worse, that he hadn't actually ra---. She couldn't even think the word, let alone say it. Sharpay squeezed her eyes shut in hopes that it would all just go away.

**=/\=**

"What do you mean, you know where to get Sharpay's blood?", Chad asked in disgust.

Before Ryan could answer, Taylor wanted to clarify something with Ryan. "The blood has to be … um … you know … fresh. You can't just get it out of her bathroom trashcan, Ryan."

Ryan looked at her confusedly and then, his eyes went wide. "Ewww, that's disgusting! I'm not talking about _that_ kind of blood. It's, you know, blood … blood." Ryan looked at everyone before continuing, looking a little embarrassed by what he was going to say. "Look, you can't tell Sharpay I told you this. She'd kill me." His voice dropped to whisper. "Sharpay's been banking her blood at the hospital the last couple of months."

Now it was Chad's turn to looked disgusted. "She's been doing what with her blood?"

Taylor and Gabriella, of course, understood instantly. "Sharpay's having surgery?", Gabriella asked.

"Huh?", Chad wasn't following this conversation and he was starting to wonder how long that jammer thingy of Gabriella's was going to last. He shot a nervous glance toward the front of the house where he knew the 'bread truck' was still parked.

Ryan exhaled dramatically and announced, "Yes."

"Will somebody explain to me what you're talking about?" An exasperated Troy finally spoke up. He was become more and more agitated as the conversation continued.

"It's called autologous blood donation", Taylor explained. "When you're going to have elective surgery, you can donate your own blood in case it's needed during your surgery. Is that what Sharpay's doing?"

Ryan allowed himself a small nod. "That's right. Sh-Sharpay..." He looked nervously from person to person. "You have to promise not to tell anyone." Everyone nodded in agreement, Chad a little too enthusiastically. "Okay... my sister is getting a nose job next month." He visibly relaxed, as if he had just absolved himself of a terrible sin. "She'll claim it's for a deviated septum, but it's really because of her bump." He pointed needlessly to his own nose.

Chad snickered. "Oh my gawd... that is too good. I can't wait til we get..."

"You promised you wouldn't tell, Chad."

"Ryan's right, Chad. You can't tell. This is much bigger than some stupid gossip.", Troy was irate. "Talk, Ryan! Tell us, right now what we need to do!"

"Man, you need to chill", Chad said calmly as he stepped up behind his best friend and gently laid a hand on his shoulder.

Troy reacted with uncharacteristic panic. He shrank away from the other boy, ducking his shoulder and twisting away from Chad. "Don't touch me!", Troy whispered as if in fear.

Troy sank to the floor, hugging his knees to his chin and started rocking back and forth in a slow, rhythmic fashion. Awkward silence fell over the room as everyone tried to understand what had just happened to Troy. One second, he was fine and the next, he was cowering on the floor like a kicked puppy. Chad was the most confused. He backed away from Troy, uncomfortable in his team captain's obvious display of vulnerability.

Gabriella slowly approached her boyfriend, but not close enough to touch him. She squatted down on the floor and tried to get him to look her in the eyes.

"Troy?", she asked in her most gentle voice. "What's wrong, babe? Can you tell us? We want to help you."

"It's not me", Troy whispered through clinched teeth. He looked up with watery eyes, but not really seeing Gabriella who was sitting less than a foot from him. He seemed to be forcing the words out of his mouth. "It's Sharpay. Something's happened to her. I don't know what, but she's scared. I need to hurry. I need to bring her back." He closed his eyes and resumed the eerie rocking motion.

**=/\=**

"She doesn't want to be touched right now, my friend", Tha-a-ba said quietly. He had joined Tulto's side after unceremoniously dumping his unconscious brother on the shore.

The woman looked horrible. One side of her face was starting to swell where Turkano had slapped her and mixture of snot and tears were running down her reddened face.

Tulto turned to him in surprise. "You can understand her?"

The other man shrugged. "No, I cannot, but I have … had to clean up Turkano's messes before and that's what usually happens. The women were all afraid of being touched, especially by men."

Tulto had a tragic look on his face. "What do we do? How can we help her if she won't let us?"

"I will go get Tsirege, my wife. She can help", suggested Tha-a-ba. He lowered his voice as he added, "She has been through it herself."

Tulto's head snapped up and a scowl appeared on his face. "You would do something like this to your own wife?"

Tha-a-ba looked horrified. "No! No, not I. I swear. I only helped her." He sighed deeply. "Turkano … raped her … b-before we even knew each other. I helped her afterward and slowly we came to love each other. Sse will come back to you, my friend, but you must give her time to heal." Tha-a-ba squeezed Tulto's shoulder and added, "I will fetch my wife and return as soon as I can." Then, he glanced quickly over at Turkano who was just regaining consciousness. "What are we going to do with him?", he asked, mostly to himself. Sighing slowly, Tha-a-ba turned away from the river and left at a run.

**=/\=**

"Everything will be okay now. I promise." Tulto spoke in a soothing, quiet voice. Sse's head snapped up and she studied him in an intensity he had never seen before. Then he recalled Tha-a-ba's words to him, _Sse will come back to you, my friend, but you must give her time to heal._ Tulto sighed. His friend didn't know that she had never been his to start with, so how could she returned to him?

There were more immediate issues at hand now. Tulto sighed again and looked over at Turkano who was starting to stir. Sse followed his gaze with her eyes and a quiet whimper escaped her throat. "Just stay here. He won't ever hurt you again. I promise", he repeated before rising slowly and walking over to Turkano.

Turkano was in a pitiful state. Even though the river water had washed away much of the blood, the cuts and forming bruises on his face were devastating. His broken nose was already starting to swell and flesh blood was still trickling from it. He looked up dazedly at the larger man and squinted through the one eye which wasn't swollen shut.

"Stand up, you coward", Tulto growled as he roughly hoisted the beaten man to his feet.

Turkano swayed slightly when the large man let go of him. "Tulto...", he started but was cut off immediately.

"Stop! You don't deserve the right to use my name or anyone else's from our village. Listen closely to me!" Tulto stepped closer, but did not touch him, looking as if the sight of his former friend made him nauseous. He hissed at Turkano, "You are no longer part of our world. You will leave here today and follow the river south until you reach a place where you can no longer understand the language of the people who dwell there, but never come back here. Do you understand me? You have harmed what is mine and for that, I will never forgive you. If you come back, I … will … kill … you!" Tulto ground out each word through gritted teeth.

"Old friend, you can't be serious", Turkano replied in his most charming voice.

"I am very serious. Gather up your clothes before I decide to cut off your manhood with my hunting knife."

**=/\=**

Turkano shrank back as the seriousness of the situation hit him. He slowly looked around for his brother, but couldn't find him. The coward, he thought. Tha-a-ba probably ran away when Tulto showed up. He couldn't find his brother, but his eyes did find the woman. She sat shivering in the mud on the river bank. There was a faraway look in her eyes and she looked completely defeated. Turkano felt a slight stirring in his loins at the sight, but quickly turned his back to the woman and Tulto so the latter didn't see his reaction.

He sighed as he gathered his clothing and began to dress. This was all that witch's fault. He would leave today, but rest assured, that witch had not seen the last of him!

**=/\=**

"So, Ryan..." Taylor passed him a Sprite and joined him on the sofa. "Let's talk blood."

They had left Gabriella alone with Troy in the kitchen which was fine with Taylor. She wasn't ready to deal with any mystic-link drama between Troy and Sharpay. The scientist in her was having enough problems coping with the blood-activated, stable worm-hole, time-traveling hypothesis. Chad had completely disappeared. Taylor had the feeling he was sitting in the basement playing Halo or some other macho, violent video game. That was his way of dealing with uncomfortable emotions.

"What's going on with Troy? Why does he seem linked to Sharpay?", Ryan asked seriously.

_Okay... maybe this guy isn't as stupid as everyone thinks he is._

"I don't know, Ryan." _Okay, that was a bald-faced lie, but Ryan didn't question it._ She knew exactly why they were linked, but she didn't have the time or inclination to explain it right now. "All I know is that Troy seems to think that time is of the essence, so I think we should get going on this banked blood."

Ryan nodded in agreement. "You're right. It's stored at Presbyterian Hospital. I went with her last week when she donated, so I know where they keep it."

"Okay, okay... we can work with that", Taylor mumbled as she opened up her laptop and started typing.

Ryan leaned over her shoulder, watching in amazement as Taylor's fingers flew over the keyboard. "What are you doing?"

"Hacking the hospital's computer system", she replied nonchalantly.

"H-hacking? Won't you get in trouble for that?"

Taylor's fingers halted and she looked up at Ryan with a placid expression on her face. "This is more serious than worrying about getting in trouble." A smirk settled on her face as she resumed typing and she added, "Besides... they have to catch you before you get in trouble."

Ryan stood there stiffly for a minute before saying quietly, "Thank you for helping my sister. I really appreciate it."

Taylor nodded slightly. She didn't mind in the least bit helping Sharpay. Especially if helping the spoiled little blonde would also aid in the advancement of science. For that was how Taylor was starting to think of this adventure. It was one big science project and she was hoping against hope that she would be able to continue her research into this phenomenon after they retrieved Sharpay from the past. With good solid research to back this up, she could name her own way into any university in the country … in the world, for that matter. However, they had to get Sharpay back first.

Something suddenly occurred to Ryan. "Wait a minute... why isn't Gabriella's jamming device interfering with your computer?"

Taylor glanced up at him with a raised brow. _Okay, this guy is definitely not as stupid as everyone says._ "Good question, Ryan. That jamming device only blocks signals that travel through the air, like radio signals or WIFI." She holds up the cable that was attached to the side of the laptop. "That's why I'm hardwired. Chad's WIFI is blocked. Your cell phone probably isn't working either." Looking back at the computer, Taylor's eyes lit up. "Alright, I'm in their system. The high school has better firewalls than these people." Taylor continued to chatter away as she typed. "Searching … searching … ah! There it is. Sharpay Sarah Evans. Age: 17. Height: 63 inches. Wow! Is that all she weighs or is she lying, Ryan?"

Ryan looked at the screen and nodded. "She's always been a little on the thin side."

"Skinny bitch", Taylor mumbled under her breath, just one more reason to dislike Sharpay Evans. "Hmmm... Here it is. Two pints of B+ positive blood, donated last week and eight weeks before that." Taylor looked up at Ryan as she paused to crack her knuckles. "This is going to be a piece of cake."

**TBC**

Author's Notes:

This one had serious drama in the past and light-hearted, almost juvenile humor in the present. Hope that wasn't hard to follow or believe. I just write what the characters tell me.

**Native American Character List: **

Tsirege – Tha-a-ba's wife, means little bird

P'ah-tah-zhuli - Toltu's 'first' wife, means little deer bean

Paxopatona -Tulto's mother, also mother of Shyuote, Sayap and Polaina

Polaina – Tulto's sister

Sayap – Tulto's youngest sister

Shyuote - Tulto's younger brother

Sse – corn silk, what Tulto 'renames' Sharpay

Tha-a-ba – Tulto's friend, brother to Turkano, Thing 2

Tulto – The Big Indian's real name

Turkano – Tulto's friend, brother to Tha-a-ba, Thing 1


	7. Kokopelli's Sweet Flute

**Twin Flames**

_A High School Musical fanfiction_

_by_

_GimmeABeat_

_beta'd by karazoel_

**Chapter 7: **Kokopelli's Sweet Flute

"_...__people would come from afar in the land,  
to hear Kokopelli's sweet flute__"_

_-The Ballad of Kokopelli, unknown_

By the time Tha-a-ba had returned with his wife in tow, Turkano was long gone. Tha-a-ba took the explanation for his brother's departure in stride and only wished that it had been he who had forced him to leave. This should have happened years ago.

Not surprisingly, Tsirege found an instant link with Sse. The two men left ostensibly to hunt for game as it was nearing dinnertime and all were growing hungry. The real reason was, of course, to give the women some privacy.

**=/\=**

Tsirege had never seen the witch before today, but she had heard much about her. Now she realized that it was unfair to think of this woman as a witch. She was different in appearance; obviously, she wasn't of the Nafiat people. However, she also wasn't some mystical evil demon either. Sometimes she did not always agree with the priests, but it was not her place to question them.

Once the two women were alone, Tsirege spoke calmly to Sse, even though she realized the woman couldn't understand her. Eventually, Tsirege convinced her with soothing words and hand gestures to come back into the water to cleanse off the mud. Some time later, Sse was clean and standing shivering on the bank of the river while Tsirege started a small fire.

When the men returned, Sse looked much better. The mud had been washed from her hair and clothes and she was in the middle of a Tiwan language lesson with Tsirege. The small stranger was a fast learner and had already picked up the words for fire, wood, river, fish, etc. Tsirege explained to her that the Tiwa people here were called the Nafiat which meant "Place Where the Wind Blows Dust". She knew Sse understood that because she laughed heartily and nodded her head in agreement. They lived in Tuf Shur Tia or the "Green Reed Place" which is how they referred to the bosque. And finally, she taught Sse the name for the river, paslápaane. Well, she attempted to teach her that word; what Sse actually said sounded like something a toddler screamed when he didn't get what he wanted.

Tsirege felt that her greatest achievement of the day was the small smile she received from Sse as they sat in relative silence around the fire. She was very proud of that smile.

**=/\=**

In the darkened room of FBI Electronic Surveillance Division, Dillon Smith was just contemplating where to go for lunch when his tap on the Danforth's IP address signaled a hit.

"Whoa, Harvey! Get a load of this", Smith exclaimed as he pointed to the screen with one of his pudgy, pale fingers. "What would someone from the Danforth house be doing hacking into the hospital bloodbank?"

"Bloodbank? Are you serious?" Harvey Blackwater was the polar opposite of his friend and colleague. Where Dillon was overweight, Harvey was skeletal. Where Dillon was short, Harvey was abnormally tall. They looked like the classic Mutt-and-Jeff team from the comic strip. The only similarities they had were their pasty complexions and that hollow-eyed look on their faces, common among individuals who stare at computer screens all day.

"Yep, take a look." Smith positioned the monitor so Harvey could see it more clearly.

Harvey giggled in excitement. "I heard this rumor in the breakroom this morning that some sort of lesbian devil worshiping cult was behind this Evans girl thing."

Smith stopped what he was doing to stare blankly at his friend. "Lesbians? Where did that come from?"

Harvey just shrugged.

"We definitely need to tell Johnson about this."

"He thinks lesbians are hot, too?"

Smith rolled his eyes while reaching for the phone. "You need to get out more, Harv."

**=/\=**

Tulto was relieved to see Sse sitting near a small fire with Tsirege. Her eyes met his briefly before darting away. He looked away too, sadly remembering Tha-a-ba's words, _you must give her time to heal._

Tha-a-ba proudly produced two medium-sized rabbits to his wife. Tsirege made quick work of skinning the animals and very soon they were roasting over a spit. Tulto saw how closely Sse was watching the other two. She was studying them, almost as if she had never seen rabbit being prepared. Tulto shook his head. That was absurd. How could someone grow to adulthood without ever having seen food prepared?

Sse was very different … but she was his responsibility. He had almost lost her today, but maybe he should not be trying to keep her. Maybe that was a mistake. He would have to give it some thought.

**=/\=**

Sharpay was disgusted. That nice, unassuming Indian, correction... Nafiat, woman, had taken a huge butcher knife and ripped open a fluffy, little bunny rabbit and it only got worse from there. She shook her head. She knew she had to lose her twenty-first century squeamishness, if she was going to survive here. Because as she had just decided while she watched this barbaric display, she would survive here and maybe, someday she would get back home. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

She pulled her gaze away from the butchery and decided to watch Tulto. He wasn't a complete savage. Even though he had severely beaten her attacker, he hadn't killed him. In fact, after a heated lecturing to that monster, Tulto had carefully watched the other man as he left alone and followed the river south, away from the village. Sharpay assumed he had kicked him out or something. She was the real savage. She wouldn't have batted an eyelash if Tulto had killed him.

Soon dinner was ready and Sharpay was so hungry that she wasn't bothered in the least with devouring that fluffy little bunny, or in the slight gamey taste that the fresh meat had. After the meal, Sharpay assumed they would start back toward the village, so she was surprised when Tsirege produced two woven blankets and passed one to Sharpay.

She accepted the blanket gratefully and pulled it closely around her shoulders. Tulto muttered something to the other man. She couldn't call him Thing 2 anymore. His name was Tha-a-ba. Tsirege had told her and explained through words and gestures that he was her husband.

After speaking to Tha-a-ba, Tulto turned away from the fire and headed out into the darkness alone. Sharpay watched this scene with curiosity, but found that her mind was too tired to sort through it. Suddenly grateful that they weren't walking back to the village tonight, she lay down with her arm curled under her head and fell into an exhausted, but fitful sleep.

**=/\=**

Agent Johnson clicked off his phone and looked at his partner. "We need to head over to Presbyterian Hospital, ASAP." Jake Williams was just lifting a forkful of green chile-washed blue corn enchiladas to his lips. He lowered the fork slightly before whining to his more senior partner, "Now?"

It was lunch time and they were eating at their favorite restaurant, Little Anita's. That was where you went if you wanted to eat like a real New Mexican. Jake frowned at the fried egg quivering over his untouched enchilada. It wouldn't even be worth getting a doggy bag. Enchiladas and fried eggs didn't reheat well. It was small consolation that Johnson was studying his Christmas-style burrito with the same yearning. "Christmas" was New Mexican code for smothering the burrito in half red and half green chiles. And according to Johnson, it was the only way to eat a burrito.

"Those crazy kids have broken into a blood bank."

"Broken in? As in a robbery?"

"No, no, nothing like that... yet. They've hacked into the hospital's computer."

Jake sighed as he rose and pulled on his suit jacket. He looked at Johnson and asked wryly, "You still think that Bolton kid had nothing to do with this?"

Johnson didn't bother to answer. He just plopped $20 on the table and walked out.

**=/\=**

A combination of gentle laughter and bright sunlight woke Sharpay and she looked around groggily, trying to find her bearings. The fire had died during the night and now only cold, white ash remained. Despite the fact that it was early summer, the nights were cold in high desert and a fire was needed to keep warm. Turning her head at the sound of the laughter, she saw Tsirege and Tha-a-ba walking hand-in-hand up the small hill from the river.

She sat up completely now and tried to brush the dust and twigs from her hair. At least, there was one advantage to short hair; there wasn't much hair left for the debris to stick to. Tsirege shushed her husband when they saw Sharpay and judging from the blush on both of their cheeks and the disarray of their clothing, Sharpay thought they had just partaken in more than a morning swim in the river. Despite her own circumstances, she smiled at that. Tsirege had been nothing but kind to her. She had the same gentleness about her as the young girl, Polaina. And now, Sharpay had to admit that she was wrong about Tha-a-ba. He was not his brother. He was quiet and gentle, like his wife. They were a good match. He had even retrieved her water-sodden cellphone and shoulder bag from the muddy river bottom. She looked over to where it's contents lay, spread out to dry. Sharpay sighed as she silently inventoried her property. There was a comb, a compact full of ruined pressed powder make-up, various crumpled receipts, her American Express card, her driver's license, and a plethora of other cards, which used to be of the utmost importance to her. That was before this nightmare began. Now, it all seemed so pointless. Finally, there was that infamous pink cellphone. She really had to admire Tha-a-ba for saving something which had so frightened him only days before. She quietly put everything back in her bag and looked around for the fourth member of their group. She didn't think Tulto had come back last night, but she had no idea where he went.

"'a" k'u wa nia" Sse", Tsirege greeted Sharpay in the standard Tiwa greeting.

Sharpay repeated back to her carefully, "'a" k'u wa nia" Tsirege, Tha-a-ba."

Tsirege smiled gently, but shook her head in the negative. She motioned to Tha-a-ba and back to herself and suddenly, Sharpay got it.

"Oh, right. Sorry about that. Okay... how 'bout this?" Then, Sharpay switched to Tiwa, "ma" n k'u wa ma"." It was a simple grammar mistake. She had gotten the number wrong. The phrase Sharpay used was only correct when addressing one person, not two.

**=/\= **

"That's right, Sse", Tsirege praised her and then turned to her husband. "See? I told you Sse was smart. Soon she'll be speaking Tiwa better than you." She smiled at their private joke. Tha-a-ba was so quiet that he was often teased about it and someone had even said they weren't sure he understood his own language enough to converse in it.

Tha-a-ba took the good-natured ribbing in stride and now only returned Tsirege's teasing with a playful pull on her long hair. He loved her hair, just like he loved every part of her. Most Nafiat women wore their hair in the same style as the men, cut at shoulder length with straight bangs across their foreheads. However, Tsirege wore her hair long and braided into a single plait which hung down the center of her back. He knew she did it more to show that she was different from the Nafiat than for any other reason. Tsirege came from Ohkay Owingeh, "place of the strong people". Turkano had stolen her five years ago during what was supposed to be a hunting trip north. He wasn't supposed to abduct, torture, and abuse any of the women from a nearby village. Turkano had been lucky that no one had come after him. Now, of course, Tha-a-ba knew that he was the lucky one.

Tsirege went to retrieve the meat from last night which she had tied up in a bundle and then hung from a tall tree to keep it from attracting bears. The Nafiat ate small meals in the morning, a snack while they worked during the day and one large meal eaten with the family in early evening after the men were home from the fields.

She opened the parcel of meat and offered it to her husband and Sse. The woman with the blanched skin took a piece of rabbit, but she was hesitant to do so. Maybe she wasn't hungry after her ill night's sleep. They heard her mumbling all night, twisting back and forth, trying to fight off her nightmare attacker. Tha-a-ba remembered how Tsirege had screamed in her sleep. After Turkano had attacked her, it was a long time before she slept well. Luckily, she found Tha-a-ba and he helped to heal her. Tha-a-ba could only hope that Sse could find equal comfort in Tulto. It took a large heart to bare the weigh of such a recovery. Tulto had a great capacity for love. He had loved his wife like that, but he wasn't entirely sure a person could love so completely more than once in a lifetime.

"Tulto should be back soon", Tha-a-ba said in passing.

**=/\=**

"I don't care what you say … I'm not wearing that hat!" Chad was livid. "I'll wear the shorts because, hey... I look good in those shorts."

Taylor nodded appreciatively at her boyfriend as she appraised his brown-clad derrière. "Hmmm... yes, you do, but the hat is part of the uniform." She held a brown UPS baseball cap in her hand and looked at him pleadingly.

"But babe...", Chad whined unabashedly. "Hats don't look look good on me. It'll squish my 'fro."

Ryan just groaned at the scene. Taylor had been arguing with Chad for the past ten minutes about this stupid hat. He looked down at his watch in disgust. Time was still ticking.

"Can't I just wear the hat? I like hats", Ryan suggested in an effort to move things along.

Taylor looked thoughtfully at Ryan. "Well..."

"I'm not giving up the shorts", Chad said petulantly.

Taylor whirled back to Chad and spoke to him like the child he was emulating. "Then you have to wear the hat!"

After hacking into the hospital's blood bank, Taylor inputted a fake shipping order to have Sharpay's blood shipped via UPS to a hospital in Sante Fe. Now all they had to do was dress Chad up like a UPS driver and send him in to pick up the blood packets. Unfortunately, they first had to convince the primadonna to wear the correct costume.

"Ugh", Ryan groaned. "I'm going to wait in the basement. Let me know when you're ready and I'll drive you over."

Chad called out to the other boy as he was leaving, "Hey, don't mess up my game! I'm about to drop out on a new city. This is the fartherest I've ever gotten on HALO."

_Fartherest?_ Ryan looked back in confusion and decided to raid the kitchen pantry instead.

**=/\=**

"Where was Tulto all night?", Tsirege asked. It wasn't a subject they had discussed last night.

"He went to check on Turkano."

The blonde's head lifted when she heard the monster's name, but Sse of course, couldn't understand the rest of the conversation. Tsirege could tell this frustrated the woman. She understood well this frustration; she remembered how difficult it was for her to learn the Tiwa language. Her own language, Tewa, was a part of the same language family as Tiwa, but the words were just different enough that she had trouble communicating when she first came to live with the Nafiat.

"What did he do, 'Ba?"

"He just went to make sure my treacherous brother did as he was told." Tha-a-ba replied, but he had a haunted look in his eyes.

Tsirege knew that he was worried about Turkano and he was afraid that Tulto would kill him if given another reason. On one level, she admired his loyalty to his only brother, but on another, she believed her husband to be a weak man. However, he was a weak man whom she loved with all her heart.

Suddenly Tulto was standing there beside them. He stepped up so quietly it caused both women to jump. Tsirege couldn't help but notice the smirk on the big man's face.

**=/\=**

"Are you sure this looks alright?", Chad asked as he fiddled with the UPS hat while looking in the vanity mirror of Sharpay's mustang.

Ryan, sitting in the driver's seat, looked at the other boy and sighed. They'd already spent way too much time placating Chad and his hair. Finally, Taylor had convinced him to pull it into a pony-tail. And then, Chad complained that it made him look like a girl. Taylor whispered something into his ear which made Chad's eye brows disappear into his curly bangs. Ryan never knew what she said, but Chad was more than happy to wear the hat after that. Ryan suspected it had something to do with sex, but hopefully, he would never know for sure.

"You look fine, Chad", Ryan finally replied. "Now, do you have the clipboard with the pick-up slip on it?"

"Ummm... yeah, yeah, I got it." Chad held up the clipboard with the pick-up signatures that Taylor faked on it. He took one last look in the mirror, putting on his sunglasses and smiling brightly at himself. "I'm ready."

"Go get 'em, tiger", Ryan said with false enthusiasm.

**=/\=**

A black Crown Victoria sat in the last row of parking, but with a direct line of sight to the front door of Presbyterian Hospital's Blood Donation Center. Jake grimaced slightly, but not at the sight of the young African-American teenager wearing brown shorts which were a bit too short. He was grimacing at the churning noise his stomach was making, his poor stomach which had just missed lunch.

Jake looked over at Agent Johnson for some direction. He wasn't moving.

"Aren't we going to apprehend them?"

"Not just yet, Williams. Not just yet. I want to give them a little more rope first --- just enough to hang themselves with." He pulled out his cellphone and told the surveillance team at the Danforth house to pull back.

**=/\=**

After Sharpay recovered from the shock of Tulto appearing out of nowhere, she actually found herself relaxing a little. As odd as it sounded, especially to her, ever since he saved her from that monster, Sharpay felt safer when the big Indian was around.

Tulto took the proffered meat from Tsirege and squatted silently while he ate. Watching him as he quickly shoved the food in his mouth, Sharpay felt all hope drain out of her. She knew that when he finished, they would all go back to the village and she would be watched more carefully than ever to ensure that she not escape again.

Tulto stood up abruptly and spoke to Tha-a-ba. Sharpay saw surprise in his eyes at whatever the larger man said, but Tha-a-ba nodded obediently and started packing up what little gear they had.

This was it, thought Sharpay. Time to go back …

However to the her surprise, Tulto started walking back toward the fallen tree where Sharpay had been attacked … and where the turn-off was for the petroglyphs. Tha-a-ba and Tsirege fell in step behind him and Sharpay stood there with a stunned expression on her face, not sure what to do. Could he really be taking her back?

**=/\=**

"That was sweet!", Chad exclaimed as he and Ryan met Troy, Taylor and Gabriella in the parking lot of the Petroglyph National Monument as per Taylor's plan. "I can't believe how well I did. I mean, I can really understand the whole acting thing, Ry. I can call you, Ry, right? Cuz I feel like we've really bonded here, ya know?" Then before Ryan could reply, Chad continued excitedly, "So how do I join the drama club? Do I talk to Ms. Darbus or what? Oh, and just know this right now … I don't dance. I'll can do other stuff like sing and stuff, but I don't dance."

Taylor walked up to her exuberant boyfriend with an anticipatory smile on her face. "How did it go?"

"Great!", Chad exclaimed, still riding high on the thrill of his first performance. "I went in, told them I was there for a pickup; they gave it to me and I left. I was brilliant."

In a much more subdued tone, Ryan replied as well. "Sharpay's blood is right here." He held up a small Styrofoam cooler. "They gave us both pints."

Taylor took the cooler and placed it on the hood of Sharpay's Mustang. "That's right", she said as she opened the cooler to check its contents. She continued matter-of-factly, "Troy will need to take one with him in case he doesn't find Sharpay."

"What do you mean, in case he doesn't find Sharpay?" This was the first Ryan had heard of such a contingency and he wasn't happy about it.

Before Taylor could answer, Troy approached them and echoed Ryan's question. "Taylor? What _do_ you mean, in case I don't find Sharpay? You think I won't find her?"

"Oh, no... of course not, b-but you should always plan for a worse case scenario. You'll find her, Troy. I'm sure of it." Although, even to her own ears, she didn't sound very sure. She tried to shake off the uneasy silence which had fallen over the group. "Come on, people. Sharpay will kill us if we don't find her, right?" Her joke fell short and no one laughed. Looking at her watch, Taylor said, "Hey, we'd better get going if we're going to make it to Kokopelli before dark."

They started walking toward the rocks. Due to the late hour, the parking lot was empty except for Taylor's and Sharpay's car. After reciting for the second time his entire adventure at the hospital for Gabriella, Chad ran to catch up with Taylor.

"Hey, babe... what about that bread truck?", Chad asked nervously. "Aren't you worried they followed you?"

Taylor shrugged it off. "Oh, they left about thirty minutes before we did. I think they gave up on us --- probably went to get different electronic devices that could cut through Gabriella's jamming."

**=/\=**

Thirty minutes of walking and they had arrived at the petroglyphs. Sharpay was as close to giddy as she had been since she arrived here. She couldn't believe this was happening; she was really going home. The trip had been strangely quiet. Tha-a-ba and Tsirege talked among themselves, but not to Tulto. Tulto wasn't speaking to anyone, just marching them toward the glyphs at a fast clip, silently daring anyone to not keep up.

They walked directly to the Kokopelli drawing and Tulto stood aside to allow Sharpay to approach it alone. Tentatively, she walked closer to the hump-backed etching which had started this whole thing. She noticed that the lines looked crisper, cleaner, newer. Instinctively, she knew it was very old even now and for the first time, Sharpay wished she knew as much history as Taylor McKessie and her troop of nerds. She would have liked to have known exactly how old this thing was and by extension, exactly _when_ she was.

Before touching it, Sharpay looked back at Tulto who was standing, ramrod straight, with a stoic expression on the chiseled panes of his face. She inhaled quietly and said her final words to this man, her captor, her savior, her lover...

"Well... this is it. I-I really want to thank you for bringing me back. I know you didn't have to do this and well... thanks." She stepped up to him and standing on her tiptoes gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. Then, before anything could stop her, she quickly walked up to Kokopelli and firmly laid her hand on the stone.

**=/\=**

Troy carefully stepped over the yellow police tape which cordoned off the area surrounding the petroglyph. "Here we are", Troy said as he approached the glyph. He was trying to see any signs of blood on its surface, but there was nothing there. "What happened to the blood?"

"No idea. Maybe that's part of the ritual", Taylor bent closer to study the picture. "You know, maybe, the stone absorbs the blood when the portal activates."

Troy nodded absently. "Let's get this thing started."

Gabriella quickly ran to his side and wrapped her arms around him. "Don't do this, Troy. It's too dangerous."

Unceremoniously, he gently, but firmly, pushed her away from him. "I have to, Gabby. She needs me."

"But what about me?"

Taylor's sharp voice interrupted them. "Gabriella, we don't have time for this." She tried to pull the Latino girl away from Troy, but Gabriella shook her off.

"Fine, you go and be a hero for some bitch who just wants to use you. But just know this... I'm leaving and I won't be here when you get back … if you get back." Gabriella's voice choked up as she added quietly, "I-I've got to go my own way."

Until this thing with Sharpay happened, he knew he would have run after her and begged her not to go. He would have tried to understand her point-of-view and how his current involvement with Sharpay might seem like an obsession to her. However, right now Troy was too stunned to respond and could only stand there mutely watching as his very first girlfriend marched determinedly away from him.

Taylor's firm hands on his shoulders brought Troy back to the present. "Troy! Listen to me. Let her go. Look, Gabriella is my best friend, but I'm telling you that she's not the one for you. Your... your destiny, if you will, is with Sharpay."

"What are you talking about?" Troy's wide blue eyes were trying to absorb what she was saying, but it wasn't making any sense.

"You're soulmates; actually, you're more than soulmates. You and Sharpay are twin flames."

Chad was watching all this drama and for a second, thought he was watching one of those Spanish soap operas that his family's housekeeper, Esperanza, liked so much. "Is this for real, Tay?"

"Absolutely, they've been written about as far back as Plato." Turning to Troy, Taylor reached out and held his hands in hers. "Twin flames are literally the other half of your soul. They are the ones that you are driven to find. When you are apart, both people are lonely, empty, and incomplete."

Ryan stepped up and asked the most obvious question. "Then why is this just happening now? They've known each other since elementary school."

"I don't know. Maybe it took the portal to trigger their connection. But according to everything I've read, that's why the portal opened in the first place. Only the blood of your twin flame can open the portal. Listen to me, Troy. Sharpay is your destiny and you are the only one who can save her."

Suddenly, it all made sense to Troy. The dreams, the angsty feelings, the periods of complete terror... He needed to get to Sharpay. He needed to save her.

**=/\=**

Johnson saw the Bolton kid nod resolutely to the African-American girl. He spoke softly into the microphone clipped to his windbreaker. "Let's do it."

The girl bent down and retrieved something out of a small Styrofoam cooler which was sitting on the ground. It was the same cooler that the other African-American boy had carried out of the blood bank. Agent Johnson's eyes went wide when the girl hefted out a plastic blood bag. He should have expected this since they were seen leaving a blood bank, but he really never believed that these kids had anything to do with the Evans girl's disappearance. However, every satanic movie he'd ever seen, had blood in their rituals.

Standing quickly, he revealed himself to the group, which also acted as a signal to his team to do the same. Within seconds, the teenagers were surrounded.

"Federal Bureau of Investigation! Stop where you are and put down the blood!"

The girl, in her surprise, dropped the blood on a jagged rock and the bag split open instantly, the bright red liquid spreading over the rock's surface.

"No!", screamed Bolton and he made a dive for the bag, but missed.

Ryan Evans, brother to the missing girl, ignored the shouts of the agents to freeze and made for the cooler. He quickly pulled out another bag and threw it, not at Bolton, but directly at the Kokopelli glyph. It was a bullseye and the plastic bag burst on the rock.

"Go, Troy! Go now!", the pale blonde shouted, even as armed federal agents were tackling him to the ground.

Bolton's bright blue eyes were shining in the low afternoon light as he frantically took in the scene around him. He nodded stoically one last time to his friends, turned, and firmly placed his open palm directly onto the ancient drawing of the humped-back flute player.

**TBC**

Author's notes:

Pretty exciting, huh? Well, I hope so anyway.

'a" k'u wa nia" – hello (singular)

ma" n k'u wa ma" hello (plural)

b'ehla – river

_posu gai hoo-oo - _where water slides down arroyo

Native American Character List:

Tsirege – Tha-a-ba's wife, means little bird

P'ah-tah-zhuli - Toltu's 'first' wife, means little deer bean

Paxopatona -Tulto's mother, also mother of Shyuote, Sayap and Polaina

Polaina – Tulto's sister

Sayap – Tulto's youngest sister

Shyuote - Tulto's younger brother

Sse – corn silk, what Tulto 'renames' Sharpay

Tha-a-ba – Tulto's friend, brother to Turkano, Thing 2

Tulto – The Big Indian's real name

Turkano – Tulto's friend, brother to Tha-a-ba, Thing 1


	8. You Didn't Come

**Twin Flames**

_A High School Musical fanfiction_

_by_

_GimmeABeat_

**Chapter 8: ****You Didn't Come**

"_At first I prayed to you: 'Come and get me, take me home.' You didn't come.__"_

_-Debbie from The Searchers_

Sse was hitting the glyph of Neopkwai'i, the humped-back flute player, so hard that she had cut a gash in her hand on the rough black rock. Then she did an astonishing thing, she pulled back her leg and kicked the rock face with all her might. And even though Tsirege could not understand what she was saying, she knew there were certain universal constants in all languages and profanity was one of them. If she had to make a guess, she would say that over half of the words spilling from Sse's mouth were profane.

"That crazy witch is going to break her foot", Tha-a-ba said out the corner of his mouth to his wife.

The quiet woman narrowed her eyes at her husband's use of the word 'witch', but said nothing. She had no idea why they had come here. Even though she had lived with the Nafait for the past five years, Tsirege had never been to the place of the ancient drawings. There were etchings in the rocks near her village too, of course, but they weren't this numerous. The sight of so many drawing was very impressive and she wished she had time to study their designs to compare them to ones from home. Unfortunately, Tulto had marched them all directly to the glyph of Neopkwai'i.

"What is happening, 'Ba?", Tsirege asked, completely confused by this turn of events. "Why are we even here?"

"Do you not know the legend of Neopkwai'i?"

"I only know that young maidens live in fear of him visiting them during the night."

Everyone was aware that Neopkwai'i was not only the prankster, healer, musicmaker, storyteller and bearer of good luck, but he was also considered to be a symbol of fertility. Childless wives begged him for his company, while maidens fled from him in fear.

Tha-a-ba shook his head. "There is a legend told by the priests, late at night in the kivas. Not very often, maybe once every four lifetimes, people have emerged from inside the rock that holds the drawing of Neopkwai'i. Usually it is two people, a couple, but sometimes it is just the one." He nodded at the small blonde with the chopped up hair.

"Are you saying that Sse came out of that rock? That is crazy, 'Ba."

Tha-a-ba nodded absently, never taking his eyes off the spectacle in front of him. "I saw it with my own eyes."

When they had first arrived at the rock face, Sse approached it slowly and then, turned back to Tulto. Even with the language barrier, it was obvious that she was saying goodbye to him before confidently walking to the drawing and placing her hand directly on it as if she expected something to happen. In fact, Tulto took a step back as if he thought something momentous would happen too. However, nothing did and that obviously angered the little blonde.

Sse began to bang on the glyph then and soon, to kick it. When this had gone on long enough, Tulto calmly pulled her away from Neopkwai'i with Sse kicking and screaming the entire time. His intention was obviously to stop her from hurting herself. By this time, her energy level had started to fall and reluctantly submitting to tears, she turned around and buried her face in Tulto's broad chest. Tsirege couldn't help but notice the flicker of satisfaction on Tulto's face before he began mumbling soft words of comfort to the distraught woman. She also couldn't help but notice the look of defeated capitulation in Sse's eyes.

**=/\=**

"Oh, my God!", screamed Jake Williams as Troy Bolton disappeared into the rock. The young agent ran forward to the glyph and, after hesitating for only a second and ignoring the concerned and angry shouts behind him, touched the surface of the basalt.

Nothing happened. The rough volcanic stone was solid, as it should be, as it always had been. Except... he had seen with his own eyes how the rock had opened up and sucked in that teenager. And now, it was completely normal. He had also seen the packet of blood spew all over the rock and now the plastic bag still laid where it landed, slowly seeping its remaining liquid into the dry ground. However, on the rock face, there wasn't any trace of blood. It was completely dry.

Jake was still staring at his dry palm when a rough hand clamped down on his shoulder, spinning him around and pulling him away from the rock.

"Are you crazy?", exclaimed his partner with such vehemence, or was that concern, that he was literally spitting the words at him. "You could have been sucked in by that thing too!" Then, Johnson turned to his men and issued an order, "I want all these people out of here and this area cordoned off with two armed agents as guard. No one gets near that rock again. And get some lights in here; it'll be dark soon."

The other agents instantly started complying with Johnson's command. Immediately, a swarm of broad shouldered men with short military-style haircuts started taking charge of the situation. Someone was barking into a cellphone and all that Jake saw was the flapping of their FBI windbreakers as he, Johnson, and the teenagers started heading towards the parking lot. Still reeling from what he had just seen, Jake looked up to see the African American girl, Taylor McKessie, standing directly in front of him.

"There was no need to worry, you know", she said confidently. "Troy was the only one who would have been affected by the portal opening."

Johnson was in her face in less than a second, the surprise evident in her eyes as her assured bearing faded quickly. "You know something." He stated the obvious. "So, talk."

The curly-haired boy started to step forward to be closer to the girl, but one stern glance from Johnson stopped him in his tracks.

"It's all based on an ancient legend involving blood and soulmates, but I think there's real science behind it all involving the existence of a stable wormhole."

Johnson chuckled mirthlessly. "Look, little lady, we may be FBI agents, but I ain't Mulder, and he...", Johnson thumbed in Williams' direction, "sure as hell ain't Scully and this isn't The X Files. Tell me the truth."

"It's the truth; I swear", the girl declared earnestly. "I'm hoping to study it in more depth when they get back."

Johnson wrinkled his brow and asked slowly, "When who gets back?"

"Sharpay and Troy, of course. We sent him after her … I hope."

The blonde kid, the missing girl's brother, who looked so out of place here in the southwest with his pale skin and hair, stepped up with a worried look on his face. "What do you mean, Taylor? You _hope_..."

"Well, since they didn't go through the wormhole together, I'm not exactly sure that they will end up in the same time period. I-I mean I think they will. I think their bond will pull Troy to her, but..." She sagged a little and Williams could tell she wasn't a person who was used to not knowing. "... I can't be sure. That's why I wanted him to take that second packet of blood, but Ryan had to go and break it on the rock", she added defensively, pointing to the brother.

Ryan petulantly crossed his arms over his chest and stuck out his chin. "He wouldn't have made it otherwise."

The Hispanic girl, Gabriella Montez, and the agent watching her had approached the group by now. Having earlier watched the angry teenager stomp off to the parking lot, Agent Johnson had her detained as soon as possible. She quickly joined in the attack with an accusatory question to the smart girl. "Taylor? Are you saying Troy could be stuck in the past somewhere with no way to get home?"

McKessie shrugged awkwardly, but had no answer.

"Let's continue this discussion at the field office downtown", Johnson announced as he quickly regained control of the situation.

As they all walked toward the awaiting cluster of black Suburbans, the curly-haired boy joined Ryan's side. "Hey, Ry. I wanted to tell you earlier, but all that drama distracted me." He swung his arm casually over Ryan's shoulder. "That was a bad ass throw you made with that blood packet. You mentioned you played baseball. Did you pitch or what?"

Ryan was too stunned to comment.

**=/\=**

A tremendous force, unlike anything Troy had ever felt seemed to reach out of the etching of the twisted flute playing sex god and engulfed him, pulling him into the volcanic rock itself. He was plummeting through a tunnel so dark he couldn't even tell if his eyes were open or not. His chest tightened as if he couldn't breath, but he wasn't suffocating. He felt a disorienting falling sensation and suddenly he was tumbling out of the rock face, hitting the hard ground with a groan.

Troy jumped up as if he was afraid that his friends had seen him fall and he would look uncool. He quickly brushed the powdery dirt off his clothes and slowly turned around in a full circle. He was completely alone.

_Wow, it really worked._

Now all he had to do was find Sharpay ... but where to start?

**=/\=**

"Sh'pi! Sh'pi!", Polaina shouted, even though she knew she was too far away from the house for Sh'pi to hear her.

The streets were crowded with people there for the annual Corn Dance. This ritual dance drew people from neighboring villages and Polaina could barely squeeze through the crowd. She understood how important this dance was, but it still vexed her when she had such an important mission to complete. The Corn Dance's most important purpose was to bring rain. Without rain, the corn crop would fail and as the staple crop of their people, they would surely fail right along with it. Another reason for the dance was to increase the number of children born each year. Once again, new life would insure the survival of their people. It was a seasonal ceremony that occurred in early fall. It was also Polaina's favorite time of the year to enjoy the first roasted pinon nuts of the fall.

Normally, Polaina would be running throughout the town with her little sister, Sayap, snatching handfuls of roasted pinon nuts and enjoying the spectacle of seeing so many people at once. It was truly a festive time. Their favorite game was trying to get a peek at the Koshari as they prepared themselves for the dance. Sayap, in particular, loved the Koshari.

Those funny clowns never failed to make her laugh. From the black and white horizontal stripes which painted their bodies from head to toe to the outrageous corn-husk skullcaps on their heads which were also painted black and white, they embodied uncontrolled behavior as they dashed through the crowds. The best part to Polaina was when they tossed a small gourd to each other until finally one of them missed and it went crashing to the ground, breaking apart. It was hilarious to watch how silly those adult men could act in order to make people laugh. Unfortunately, that would not happen until tomorrow. Today was the preparation and cooking; there was always cooking associated with a feast day.

However, Polaina wasn't thinking about that now. She had news to tell Sh'pi. Big news! Very big news! Finally, she reached her house and flew by her mother and grandmother as they roasted those delicious smelling pinons over the outside fire. She literally bounced up the ladder to the entrance, knowing that Sh'pi would be inside.

"Sh'pi! Where are you?", Polaina shouted into the seemingly deserted interior.

An angry young woman marched into the room with a scowl on her pretty face, ready to chastise the young girl. "Inside voice, Polaina!", she hissed as she paused and glanced nervously toward the back room. Then, in a more pleasant voice, she asked, "What has you so worked up?"

Polaina took a deep breath before continuing. "Sh'pi... Neopkwai'i has sent another one."

Sh'pi stumbled back at the girl's words and had to brace herself against the wall to keep from falling over. She seemed to be having a problem understanding what Polaina had said, which surprised her since Sh'pi barely even spoke with an accent anymore. Her mother, Paxopatona, often said that Sh'pi, or Sse as everyone else called her, had a gift for languages.

With one hand still clutching the wall, Sh'pi brushed her auburn-brown hair out of her eyes with the other, before speaking. Her hair had grown quickly and was now to just above her shoulders. The golden color which had earned her the name Sse or corn silk had not returned and the medicine man took that as evidence that he was right when he had cut it. As far as he was concerned, the evil spirits which had inhabited her body had been purged along with her unnatural hair color. Polaina thought she was beautiful, no matter what the color of her hair.

"W-what did you say?", she finally asked, her voice as shaky as the rest of her body.

"My friend, Ashtay,..." Polaina couldn't control the blush that rose on her cheek at the thought of the handsome young man. "He was in the desert gathering plants to make into medicines. He is an apprentice to our medicine man." She realized she was telling Sh'pi things she already knew, but couldn't seem to stop the explanation. "Anyway, he was searching at the outcropping of black rocks where the many etchings are located. Some of those herbs can only be found at sunrise so Ashtay had spent the night there."

In a calm voice which belied her anguish stance, Sh'pi encouraged, "Go on..."

"Right, sorry... this morning, Ashtay was picking herbs when he saw a man tumble out of one of the large rocks. It was a man like you --- pale skin, brown hair and his eyes … they are the color of the sky." Polaina could hear Sh'pi's gasp at her words.

"Blue eyes? Where is he?" Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"They took him to the main kiva --- the same place they took you when you first came to us", Polaina added ominously.

Sh'pi pushed herself away from the wall and started for the doorway before stopping and looking forlornly toward the other doorway. Polaina, sensing the anxiety of the woman who had become like a sister to her, quickly stepped up. "Don't worry about anything. I'll stay here for you."

The delicate woman looked back and forth between the girl and door, indecision written all over her face. "You're sure?"

"I'm sure; now go. Go to him, Sh'pi."

Nodding quickly, Sh'pi exited the house and hit the ground running towards the central kiva. Polaina's mother and grandmother looked after the young woman silently, the worry evident in their weathered faces.

**=/\=**

Troy stared out at the Sandia Mountains to the east, a steady breeze blowing in his face. He could see a small line of conifers at its peak, but the mountain range had taken on an reddish-orange hue as the setting sun behind him reflected off the mountain's barren areas. For the first time ever, Troy understood why the Spanish who had colonized the area had come up with the name. Sandia meant watermelon in Spanish, as any second-year Spanish student could tell you, let alone someone like Troy who had taken Spanish class since sixth grade. The reddish-orange color resembled the fleshy center and when combined with the green conifers which looked like the rind, the mountain range certainly did make you think of a watermelon. Troy also thought to himself that they looked the same as they had yesterday, and yet, he knew everything had changed since yesterday. He was in a completely different century for God's sake. Everything he had thought or known had changed. It was surreal.

He was standing on the raised platform that formed the roof of a large circular kiva, which Troy remembered learning about in his social studies classes in middle school. A kiva was a subterranean room used by the Pueblo Indians for religious ceremonies. He wasn't sure what these ceremonies entailed and he didn't really want to find out. He just wanted to find Sharpay and get the hell out of here. Unfortunately, he had no idea where she was or how to find her. He didn't even know if she was in this village. If he remembered his social studies classes correctly, there were almost a hundred Pueblos in New Mexico, so the odds of both of them being taken to the same village were astronomical. Then again, for the last three days his entire life had been pretty incredible.

After Troy came flying out of the rock, he had only been walking around the petroglyphs for a few minutes before he came upon a young kid chiseling on the basalt rock. The boy was putting the final touches on a picture of a girl with a water pitcher on her head. Troy recognized it immediately. It was the same one that he had discovered with Sharpay on that first day at the petroglyphs. It was the picture of the girl that both he and Sharpay somehow knew was called Butterfly.

Troy decided to break from the stereotypical male mythos and just ask him for directions. "Uh, hi..."

However, before he could ask more, the boy jumped up, dropping his leather satchel, and nearly pissing his … loincloth? … in the process. Judging by the kid's appearance, he was definitely in the past, way in the past. Troy reflexively held up his hands in a mea culpa gesture trying to show simultaneously that he was sorry and that he wasn't a danger to anyone. He certainly didn't want this kid to run away and bring back a dozen of his closest and much larger friends. The boy was about thirteen or so, just on the cusp of manhood and he was obviously scared out of his wits by Troy. Under ordinary circumstances, he would have laughed that anyone could be frightened of him. Troy Bolton was about as harmless as they came.

Troy tried talking to him again. "Hey, calm down there, fella. I'm not gonna hurt you." Troy cringed at how stupid that came out. He sounded like he was talking to a scared puppy. However, his soothing tone seemed to have the desired effect and the boy didn't have that 'deer in the headlights' look anymore. "I'm Troy", Troy said, pointing to himself and repeating his name numerous times.

The boy understood and pointed to himself, saying, "Ashtay."

_Ashtay … man, when they were handing out all the good names, this kid must have been in the bathroom._

He knew it was ridiculous to ask, but Troy couldn't help himself. "So, Ashtray...", he started and tried not to snicker at his clever wordplay on this poor kid's name. "I'm looking for a girl. She's about this tall..." He held up his hand to approximate her height. "She has long blonde hair..." He tried showing the boy what long, luxurious blonde hair would look like on him and the boy must be understanding some of what he was saying because he started laughing. "Yeah, I know... pretty funny, right?" However, Ashtay's laughter halted instantly when Troy made his next statement. "Her name is Sharpay."

**=/\=**

Ashtay immediately recognized the name of Tulto's woman when the blue-eyed man said it. Polaina called her Sh'pi, but he had heard the woman say her own name and what she said sounded like what this man had called her: Sharpay.

Now, Ashtay knew what he had to do. He had to take this stranger back home with him. The elders would know what to do. And he must tell Polaina about this as well. Even thinking about her caused him to smile. Ashtay was apprenticing under the village's medicine man and had been sent out here to the etchings to find the herbs that his master had requested. After finding them though, he had indulged in his favorite pastime: art, and in his favorite subject: Polaina. Carving into the black rock took must time and he had started this drawing months ago when he had first started coming here. Today, he was just finishing it when the man appeared out of nowhere.

Clearing his throat, Ashtay announced firmly, "Come with me. I will take you to where Sse lives."

**=/\=**

Troy had no idea what the boy had said, but Ashtay had become very quiet when he had mentioned Sharpay's name, so he went he excitedly urged Troy to follow him, he did. Ashtay led Troy north at a jog, following the Rio Grande for an hour until they pulled away from the river and trekked up a small hill. When Troy reached the top, he was shocked by what he saw. Field after fertile field spread out in the valley below with acres upon acres of tall corn waving in the gentle breeze. However, the corn wasn't planted in rows as was the practice in modern farming. Instead, Troy saw clusters of cornstalks planted in mounds, separated by several feet between each mound. He could see small streams cutting in and out of the crops and quickly realized that these were some sort of irrigation lines. As they passed by, the field workers straightened up from their stooped positions and waved at Ashtay who cheerily returned their greetings. Then, the workers, in turn, halted in their easy chatter with the gregarious boy and stared open mouthed at Troy Bolton, typical American teen.

Then he saw the village sitting on the far side of the fields. The river and village bracketed the fields of corn. Once they cleared the cornfields, Troy saw that the village was huge, much larger than he had imagined. Flat-roofed adobe houses spread out, forming what more correctly resembled a small city, rather than a village. There were hard, dirt packed streets and multi-storied homes with ladders leaning against them. In fact, it looked remarkably like the model Pueblo village he had built out of plaster of Paris in fifth grade.

When he had first found Ashtay, Troy had immediately succumbed to some long held assumptions about Native Americans. He assumed they were uncivilized savages like in all those old John Wayne movies he loved to watch with his dad. He half expected them to stake him out in the desert and pour honey on him so the ants could eat him alive. Troy was pretty sure he remembered that plot from some old movie. However, they had been nothing but kind to him. They offered him water and delicious pinon nuts. Troy loved those things. When he was a little kid, he'd once eaten so many they had made him sick, but he still loved them.

The only problem now was the wait. Because just like big cities in the 21st century, this city was apparently full of bureaucracy. The village elders, at least that's who he thought they were, were still meeting in the kiva under him and Troy was starting to get restless.

**=/\=**

Sharpay was out of breath when she arrived at the central plaza. A huge crowd had gathered around to see the stranger that had landed amongst them. This crowd seemed much more jovial and good humored than the one that had originally greeted her; she noted with slight indignation.

In the same way she used to part the hallways back in high school, Sharpay's entrance into the plaza caused the people to pull back and allow her to enter unhindered. And as they parted, she could clearly see all the way to the great kiva in the central plaza. Her breath caught in her throat and Sharpay came to an abrupt halt when she saw him standing at the top of the round structure. His back was to her and he was staring up at the mountains, those so familiar, unchanging mountains which had given Sharpay so much solace when she first arrived here.

He turned suddenly in her direction. The light from the setting sun was reflecting off the mountain range behind him, coloring the sky around his head in reddish-orange and causing the young man to appear to glow in the rapidly approaching dusk.

It was him. It was Troy Bolton, come to rescue her at last.

**=/\=**

Troy whirled around when a sudden hush fell over the crowd. All eyes turned in unison toward an Indian woman standing in the middle of the road and looking in his direction. With the sun setting directly behind her, Troy had to shield his eyes in order to get a better look. Although she was still some distance away, he could already tell there was definitely something worth looking at here. She started walking slowly toward him and Troy became even more interested. She had a confident air about her that intrigued him.

She was short; but then, most of these people were short. However, she seemed almost delicate, not as dense as the other Indians around him. She wore the same off-white cotton dress that all of the women wore, tied at the right shoulder like a toga. Around her small waist was an elaborate belt woven of multi-colored materials. Her feet were bare, again, like most of the people here, but there was something almost sexy about how her toes dug into the soil with each step that brought her closer to him. Letting his eyes travel back up her body, he took the time to notice that the mostly shapeless material of the dress couldn't hide her luscious figure. She had a tiny waist, but ample breasts and hips. There was just something very squeezable about her. She was getting close enough to see her face now and Troy noted that she wore her hair in what must be the most popular style in the village. It was shoulder length, with bangs cut straight across. He originally thought the sunlight was causing it to appear reddish brown; however, now Troy could see that her hair actually was a sun streaked brown and not the coal black of every other native here. And that's when it hit him. He wasn't practically drooling over some hot Indian babe; he was definitely drooling over Sharpay, but a Sharpay he never in his wildest dreams (and he'd had some pretty damn wild dreams involving Sharpay) thought he would ever see --- a Sharpay Evans gone native.

**=/\=**

It was him. It was really him, and Sharpay's heart began to soar. As she drew nearer she could see that Troy was wearing faded jeans, a solid red t-shirt, and black Chucks. In other words, he looked like a typical American teenager … only from a time which hadn't happened yet. Also, everything was covered in a light coating of dust as if he had just walked all the way from the petroglyphs. Of course, that's exactly what had happened.

Sharpay had to chuckle. With the wind blowing at his back and sweeping his hair in his eyes, Troy Bolton looked like he had emo hair. He was trying to hold it back as he squinted in her direction. Sharpay had never seen anything so beautiful. A huge smile broke out on his face when he recognized her. Sharpay could stand it no longer and she broke into a run, her bare feet kicking up clouds of dust as she sprinted toward him.

And then she was there and she was hugging him as if her life depended on it. They were so close that that she could feel his heartbeat thrumming under her cheek and she realized that her own had slowed to match his or maybe his had increased to match her own. Their hearts were beating as one. With her head buried against his chest, Sharpay breathed in his scent as if it was life-giving oxygen. Past the layer of dust on Troy's skin, she could smell the clean scent of shampoo, deodorant, and bar soap. She inhaled deeply and smiled. He smelled like home.

Hugging her just as tightly, Troy rasped into her hair, "I found you, Sharpay. I can't believe I really found you."

Sharpay was ecstatic and her eyes inexplicably filled with tears. He smelled like home and he had come for her at last. He had come to take her back. Then, other memories assailed her. She remembered everything that had happened since she had first arrived here. It hit her like the heavy metate stone they used to grind corn.

He had come too late to save her. It was too late.

Like a thunder crack on a hot summer evening, Sharpay suddenly lurched away from Troy with fire crackling in her eyes. "What the hell took you so long?", she shouted venomously.

Troy looked stunned. "W-whatdaya mean? I got here as fast as I could. Taylor had to rese..."

"As fast as you could?", she repeated incredulously. "I've been here for over a year, Troy. A year."

He looked completely bewildered. "What? Oh, God, Sharpay. It's was been only three days for me. I-I didn't know."

**=/\=**

What a fool he was. He should have realized right away. The way she looked... that couldn't have happened in only three days. Sharpay's hair was brown with sun-streaked strands of red flowing through it. Her skin was a gorgeous bronze color, the same as when she had gone St. Tropez for spring break. And she looked … more mature; her face was thinner, but other parts of her where definitely more filled out. She also looked like she had been working out with a personal trainer. Her biceps were cut, as where her calf muscles. Sharpay looked like she had more muscle definition than the singer, Pink. Troy had read in some grocery store tabloid that Pink kick-boxed five days a week with three pound dumbbells to achieve her look. He had no idea what Sharpay did to look so good, but it obviously worked.

Before he could question her further, a large shadow fell over the two of them in the form of the biggest Indian Troy had ever seen. He was about the same height as Troy was, but he must have outweighed him by 30 pounds. Basketball players needed to be wiry and fast, not big and muscle-bound like football players. However Troy still worked out regularly at the gym, but this guy made him feel like a skinny freshman.

Troy assumed the man had come for him, that the meeting in the kiva must be over, but the guy wasn't even looking at him. He had eyes only for Sharpay, and they were very possessive eyes. The big guy walked directly up to Sharpay and barked something to her in a very commanding voice. Troy expected that famous Sharpay attitude to raise its bitchy head, especially after how she had just laid into him. However, to his surprise she answered him in a quiet and meek voice in his same sing-song language.

**=/\=**

"Sse, the elders want you to translate this stranger's words. I told them you would." It was a statement from Tulto, not a question, brokering no response from her.

Sharpay lowered her head, hating the way this made her look in front of Troy. Peering up at the large Nafiat man through her thick lashes, she replied quietly. "Of course, Tulto."

Tulto then turned to Troy with narrowed eyes, studying him for the first time. With a dismissive grunt, he signaled to the medicine man standing behind Troy. The old man was wearing that wicked mask which had so frightened her on her first night here.

The old man stepped forward and addressed Sharpay respectfully, "We are grateful for your help, Sse. We want to learn as much about him as possible before we make a decision." It went unsaid that this was the polar opposite of what they had done with her. Sharpay sighed inwardly. _Well, at least they seem to learn from their mistakes._

She nodded to the medicine man and turned to Troy, explaining as they approached the opening for the subterranean room, "They want me to translate for you at the kiva meeting. I've only been inside once and that was to help paint the walls." They stepped up the ladder projected ten or twelve feet above the surface. Sharpay ignored Troy's surprised expression when she mentioned home repair. Under normal circumstances, women were only allowed into the kivas to whitewash the walls and any other repairs that need be. More than anyone, Sharpay was surprise at her own acceptance of life here in the village. The old drama queen would have laughed in their faces a year ago, but now she was part of something bigger. This was something she had never achieved in her own time, but here, she was a working member of society.

As they descended into the kiva, the air grew noticeably cooler and a shiver ran through Sharpay as a result. At least, she hoped that was why she shivered. Over a dozen older priests were sitting on a built-in sandstone bench which circled the underground room. Small niches were cut into the side walls, holding such items as feathers, turquoise, or shells. Sharpay knew these things were significant to the Pueblo people in a similar way that prayer books and crosses were important symbols to Christians. At the farther end of the lower level a similar bench about two feet high was used as a shelf on which images were placed and an opening in front holds certain masks when they were not in use.

Near the center of the dirt floor, directly under the hatchway, was a fire pit. An upright stone slab deflected the air away from the fire's flames and prevented smoke from circulating in the room. Sharpay glanced with trepidation at the far side of the room at a small cavity covered by a plank in which a hole was cut, closed off with a tightly fitting plug. It symbolized the portal through which the first people and animals originally came to this world. Now, deities were supposed to come through there during the ceremonies. Sharpay didn't actually believe any of this ancient religion … but still, it made her nervous just to be here.

Even though she had never participated in any of the rituals, since women weren't allowed, Sharpay had heard of what happened here. If men were organizing a hunt, especially for big game like deer or elk, they would engage in a hunting ritual held in a _kiva_. In such a ritual, they would appeal for good luck on the hunt while, at the same time, apologize for taking the lives of the animals.

She took a breath to calm herself and smiled quietly when she saw the large stone slabs which were placed along the sides of the room. They had holes in them to receive the posts of the looms which are usually set up and used in the kivas during the winter months. Sharpay, with her modern American views of male-female positions in society, still had problems accepting that the men did all of the cloth and belt weaving in this world. She lightly fingered the beautiful belt around her waist and happily remembered back to the day when Tulto gave it to her. For such a big man, it was amazing that he was capable of such intricate and delicate artistry.

Troy moved restlessly at her side and she was immediately brought back to the present. He was shifting back and forth on his black, dusty Chucks, looking even more out of place. If she had to guess, it looked like he was trying to figure out an escape route from this room. He was more nervous than she. Checking that no one was watching them, Sharpay stealthily leaned toward him and whispered with a smirk worthy of the old Sharpay, "Welcome to the world's first man cave, Troy."

She tried to contain her laughter as his eyes widened comically at hearing this. Without even trying, Troy Bolton had definitely perfected the WTF look. Somehow, this brought the former East High diva a miniscule amount of comfort.

The medicine man gestured to where he wanted her to sit and Troy automatically started to follow her until Tulto pulled him back and placed him several yards away from her, taking his own seat directly next to Troy. When would that big oaf finally realize that he had no reason to be jealous?

The medicine man quieted everyone down and addressed Sharpay. "Sse, woman of Tulto..."

Sharpay winced inwardly at hearing this. She was always referred to by that title, 'woman of Tulto'. She felt like she should have it tattooed on her forehead. Because she had no family within the Nafiat people, she had no status. And since she had no status, she would never be Tulto's wife, only his 'woman'. That wasn't much better than slave in this society. Of course, she wasn't completely sure she wanted to be his wife. After all this time, she still wasn't sure how she felt about him. He was a generous lover, despite his propensity for being domineering in bed.

Sharpay looked up when she realized that the medicine man had stopped talking and was obviously waiting for her to respond or translate or … something.

"Right...", she started in English, while turning to face Troy. "We're going to convince them that you're a god, so play along, okay? And don't worry, by this time tomorrow, you'll be back home."

Oh, yeah... he had definitely perfected the WTF look. He was the king of that look. Now all she had to do was convince these elders that god's from her world all had that glassy, glazed look to them.

**TBC**

**Author's Notes:**

Sorry this has taken so long, but it's nice and long. Hope there are still people out there who are reading. I really appreciate it if you let me know what you think.

Remember, Neopkwai'i is the Sandia Pueblo word for Kokopelli

Also, I hope that you noticed that in the beginning I was trying to do the scenes through the eyes of minor characters, Tsirege and the junior FBI agent, Williams. Thought that would make it a little more interesting.

And what about Troy and Sharpay and that evil author who just keeps messing up their lives? Well, at least they're together now. Right? Right?

**Native American Character List: **

Tsirege – Tha-a-ba's wife, means little bird

P'ah-tah-zhuli - Toltu's 'first' wife, means little deer bean

Paxopatona -Tulto's mother, also mother of Shyuote, Sayap and Polaina

Polaina – Tulto's sister

Sayap – Tulto's youngest sister

Shyuote - Tulto's younger brother

Sse – corn silk, what Tulto 'renames' Sharpay

Tha-a-ba – Tulto's friend, brother to Turkano, Thing 2

Tulto – The Big Indian's real name

Turkano – Tulto's friend, brother to Tha-a-ba, Thing 1

Ashtay – Polaina's friend


	9. It's No Use Going Back to Yesterday

**Twin Flames**

_A High School Musical fanfiction_

_by_

_GimmeABeat_

_beta'd by_

_Stumbling Dragon_

**Chapter 9: It's No Use Going Back to Yesterday**

"**___But it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then._****_  
_**___- ____Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_

**=/\=**

"_We're going to convince them that you're a god; so play along, okay?"_

Troy couldn't believe what he had just heard. _A god? Was she crazed?_

"A god? Sharpay, are you crazy?", he asked aloud. "I can't do that! I-I can't just pretend to be a god."

Sharpay stood quickly and rushed over to kneel next to him, ignoring the startled expressions of the men around her. "Listen to me, Troy. And listen fast. When I first got here, they thought I was possessed by evil spirits because my hair was blonde, right?" Troy nodded silently, but had no idea what she was talking about. "So they hacked it off and it grew back dark, so they thought, _look at us, we cured her_. And everything went on fine from there." She glanced nervously over to the big Indian sitting next to him and smiled slightly. "At least for them", she added under her breath.

"But...", Troy interrupted.

"Ack", she snapped back at him. "I'm not finished yet. Now, we come to you. Hmmmm...", she studied him with mock interest and then, snapped her fingers. "I've got it! Take a look at those eyes. They're blue. Who ever heard of blue eyes on a human? Around here... no one has, Troy. So, ask yourself this. If they cut off my hair because it wasn't how they define normal, what do you think they'll do … _with your eyes_?"

He got it. Oh boy, did he get it. "Oh my God, you mean they would..." He absently move a hand up to rub at his right eye.

Sharpay didn't say anything. Instead, she dramatically bowed down before him before backing her way back to her seat. It looked like something he had seen in an old movie where the king's subjects weren't allowed to turn their backs on their monarch. Troy drew in a ragged breath and looked around the darkened room. The light from the small fire flickered across the stern faces of the village priests, making them look even more severe. This was going to be a long night.

**=/\=**

Sharpay smiled graciously to the medicine man. "I've explained what you want to learn and Lord Troy has agreed, but please understand that a god, even a minor one such as Troy, only has a limited amount of time to devote to these proceedings."

"A god?", the elderly medicine man removed the intimidating mask he wore and asked with a raised brow cast in Troy's direction.

"Yes, Grandfather, that is right. He is a minor god of my people." Sharpay used the native term of respect for the old medicine man.

The old man's eyes crinkled in concentration, turning his face into a perfect imitation of a sun-dried apple. "Can your god give us proof of this?"

"Of course, he can … if it amuses him to show us."

The medicine man nodded sagely and indicated for Sharpay to proceed.

**=/\=**

Troy thought he might squeal like a girl when the old man removed his elaborate mask. That mask, with its strange collection of dangling artifacts, had been bad enough. However, the shriveled up face underneath it was something all together different. The old man's face was covered in an endless maze of deep lines. Troy had never seen anyone in his entire life who looked as old as this man. Yet, he moved quickly on his skinny bird-like legs, so he obviously wasn't as old as he appeared. He supposed that being exposed to the sun for most of his long life had caused all the damage to his skin. When he spoke, it became clear that he only had two remaining teeth, one on the top and one on the bottom, but on opposite sides so that they didn't meet when he closed his mouth. Troy guessed that dental hygiene hadn't been invented yet. To distract himself from staring rudely at the medicine man, Troy decided to concentrate on Sharpay.

She spoke with the old man reverently, which surprised Troy. Sharpay Evans never spoke to anyone reverently with the exception of Ms. Darbus when she wanted something from the drama teacher. Of course, this whole day had been filled with surprises. After watching their short conversation, Sharpay came to him again and spoke in English. No one else could understand what they were saying, even if that big Indian looked like he was taking in every word and dissecting it syllable by syllable in order to glean its meaning. He made Troy very nervous.

"Alright Troy, you need to show them some godlike magic." Her eyes were shining. She was actually enjoying this, but he guessed that made sense since she was the supreme drama queen after all.

"Godlike magic?", he echoed dumbly.

"Yes...", she hissed, "and try not to look so stunned all the time. You supposed to be a god."

"Forgive me...", he grumbled with a distinct lack of conviction. "I guess I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this whole 'they're going to poke my eyes out' thing to think about magic tricks."

She lifted her finger in an 'ah-ha' gesture. "That's it! Do a magic trick!"

"Magic trick? What kind of magic trick?" Troy absently swatted away at his left ear, only to realize too late that the irritating feeling was that big Indian breathing, literally, down his neck.

Sharpay reached over, patted the big guy on his overly muscled bicep, and said something in the Indian language. She sounded uncharacteristically soothing and demure to Troy's English ears, but maybe that was just the cadence of the language. The Indian growled back something to her and Troy realized his mistake. Sharpay had, indeed, been speaking to him in a diffident manner because there was nothing soothing in the big Indian's tone of voice. Surprises never ended in this place.

The big Indian stomped off into a corner to sulk, but at least he was away from Troy. He noticed immediately that his anxiety level lowered a notch or two and he began to breath a little more easily. That is until he looked back and met the expectant brown eyes of Sharpay. They seemed to be saying, "Don't worry about Tulto. He's just a big baby. Do you have anything yet?"

"I-I don't know any magic tricks, Sharpay." And then, because he felt like he was somehow letting her down, he added, "I'm sorry."

She wasn't to be deterred. "Of course, you do. You were in that dorky Junior Magician Club in fifth grade. The whole school watched you do that cool card trick. Remember?"

The pleading that entered her voice seemed to be asking for more than a card trick and then, he did remember.

"You were my assistant", he said simply.

Her beaming smile let him know he was right, along with the growl from a darkened corner of the room from a certain pouting giant. Troy refused to even glance in … she had called him Tulto … in Tulto's direction.

"Yes. You chose me …" She paused for a moment as she seemed to relish the memory before rushing on. "...from the audience, that is. And you told me to think of a card and then, you picked it out of the deck. It was amazing; it was like you could read my mind" She sounded so sincere that for a second he thought he actually might be able to do real magic, then he remembered something else about that performance.

"I remember that", he agreed. "I also remember that you took complete control of the show and you ended up getting more applause than I did."

"Oh, Troy... I had to. You were so nervous I thought you were going to pass out in front of the whole school. Deflecting their attention to me was like a hidden blessing for you."

Troy nodded slowly trying to follow her logic. "Right..."

"So, anyway... how about a trick?"

He sighed and rubbed at his eyes. "Sharpay, I can't do a card trick without a deck of cards and even then, it has to be a trick deck. Plus... I haven't done a magic trick since that day. You're right. I was super nervous, but I was about to throw-up, not faint when you started singing and tap dancing."

A new light appeared in her eyes. "I was wonderful, wasn't I? You know my dance instructor said I was a tap prodigy. Unfortunately, I was born about 50 years too late. That's when tap dancing was super popular, y'know? Have you ever heard of Ginger Rogers or Vera Ellen? No? Well, that just shows you that I'm right. I was born too late. They were the goddesses of the Golden Era of Tap."

"Sharpay, stop. Please, you're scaring me." He stood up and gently took her by her shoulders, forcing her to look at him and forcing himself to look at her and not at you-know-who. He knew she liked to talk about herself, but she was starting to sound manic.

He knew the instant she came back to herself and started focusing on him and the sadness in her eyes nearly broke his heart. Troy wished he could let her continue her trip down memory lane.

"Oh, Troy...", she whispered desperately. "I'm so scared. You came to save me and now you're going to die because of it." She pulled her eyes away from his and looked to the floor. "O-or be blinded. Either way, it's not going to be pretty. Oh God, Troy... I'm so sorry. You should have never came for me."

**=/\=**

Tulto couldn't control the growl which started low in his throat and threatened to come roaring out in uncontrolled fury. Watching them together was excruciating. Sse was his! The spirits had given her to him and now this fake god is trying to take her from him. Tulto could see how the blue-eyed man looked at his woman and it tore at his very soul.

Finally, he could take it no longer. Tulto took one step toward the pair and found himself toe to toe with the ancient medicine man. Hishtanyi was the most revered man in the village and Tulto immediately bowed his head and stepped back in deference to his position and wisdom. He knew instantly by the stern look on the old man's face that he wasn't pleased.

Tulto bowed his head as he spoke, "I'm sorry, Grandfather. I do not wish to offend." The large man silently turned and climbed up the ladder without a word from the old medicine man, his presence alone was enough to convey his instructions.

**=/\=**

"What about some other trick? One that you can do without a special prop", encouraged Sharpay. She was speaking so intently to Troy that she didn't notice Tulto's departure, but Troy did and he felt as if he could finally take a complete breath. He just hoped that guy wasn't going to come back with a gun. Did they even have guns here? He hadn't seen any, but you never know.

"Troy! Troy!" Sharpay was waving her hand in front of his face to get his attention.

"Okay, okay. How about this? We take a compass and tell the old man that it's a magic little arrow that will point to who will die next. And then, we tell him that he can protect himself by arming himself with all sorts of metal weapons, but they have to be metal, iron actually. Now, by holding all these weapons, he's messed up the way the needle points and he'll believe that he will be the next one to die because the compass needle will be attracted to all of that iron." Troy leaned back, obviously proud of his plan.

Sharpay blinked at him at few times before her eyes started to narrow. That was never a good sign.

Very calmly, she said, "What was I thinking? You're not a god; you're an idiot. First of all, I guess you haven't noticed, but there is no metal here. We're, like, in the stone age or something. Second, just because these people don't speak the same language as you or wear the same clothing as you or live in as nice a house as you ..." She was getting really worked up here. "Doesn't mean they're idiots! We live in a thriving city here with hundreds of people who work together in order to wring out a meager existence in this Godforsaken armpit of the world! We have family, traditions, and culture that you can't even imagine." Her voice dropped an octave and Troy imagined her excellent vocal control must have been the result of years of voice training. Plus, he couldn't help but notice that she had used the personal pronoun, _we_, and not _they_ when she spoke about the Indians and their way of life. Just how assimilated was she? "So just quit acting like some sort of stuck-up rich-bitch and get with the program before they decide to kill the both of us." She ended up inches from his face and he had never seen her look more beautiful and at the same time, more frightening. She took a deep breath, before finishing. "Also... I don't think you have a compass. _Do you_?"

Troy shook his head and lamely tried to explain. "It worked for Gary Cooper in Unconquered. It was a movie from 1947 with Paulette Goddard. Boris Karloff was the Indian. My dad and I like to watch old movies together, especially John Wayne and Gary Cooper." He paused for a second to gather his thoughts. "Look, Sharpay... I'm really sorry; I didn't mean to insult anybody, but I'm just really out of my element right now and I guess I'm not dealing with it very well."

Sharpay pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger and prayed that the real God would forgive them and help them out of this mess.

In a last ditch effort to salvage this situation, Troy provided quietly, "I've got some change. Maybe I could do some coin tricks. I'm actually pretty good at those. Coin dexterity tricks are good finger exercises for basketball."

Sharpay raised her head as if she were waiting for the punchline and when there was none forthcoming, she cautiously asked, "You think you can pull it off?"

Troy gave her one of his million watt smiles. "I'll give it the ole high school try."

Her head tilted to the right and for a second he thought she was going to lean in and kiss him. Instead, she smiled and said, "Boris Karloff was an Indian? Well, if the same guy who played Frankenstein and the Mummy could pull off playing the part of an Indian chief, then maybe we have a chance of pulling off this performance too."

**=/\=**

Sharpay distracted the old priests and the medicine man while Troy searched through his pockets to find the right size coin. It had to be large enough to manipulate and small enough to palm in his hand. He decided on a nickel.

"Honored priests and elders, please excuse my Lord Troy, as he is still acclimating himself to our mortal realm." Sharpay smiled sweetly. All those years of acting had never been more useful than in this past year. Plus, her natural love of Shakespeare seemed to translate into any language and made her normal speech sound much more flowery and authoritative. "He will be ready momentarily to demonstrate a small example of his powers."

In English, she asked Troy, "Are you ready?"

He replied as she stepped closer to the center of the room, "As ready as I'll ever be."

"Break a leg."

"Better than losing an eye", quipped Troy.

**=/\=**

He stepped closer to the fire and noticed that the flames threw multiple shadows of him onto the walls. It had an eerie effect and worked well for making him appear more powerful. Troy started with a simple coin roll by rolling the nickel over the top of his fingers. It was much easier than it appeared and always impressed people the first time they saw it. He deftly rolled the coin across the back of his fingers and back again and then, palmed it in his hand and opened up his palms to show everyone that it was gone. Then, he stepped up to the old medicine man.

Troy tried to reach behind the old man's ear, but he flinched back away from him. Sharpay said something and the man stood up straight and held his ground. Troy smiled reassuringly told him not to worry while at the same time trying to ignore the rancid breath of the old man. That must explain some of his tooth problems.

Troy quickly produced the coin, seemingly from inside the old man's ear. Sharpay and Troy looked expectant … and no one said anything. The crackling of the fire was the only sound in the entire room.

**=/\=**

Hishtanyi stared blankly at the god-elect, Troy Bolton. This wasn't looking good. With a lightening fast hand, the old man reached and snatched the nickel from teen's hand. Hishtanyi's eyes narrowed, but not in anger, the old man was simply squinting at the small silver coin. He studied it for a while on one side before turning it over. Suddenly, he let out a gasp and ran over to the bench to confer with the village priests.

"What's going on?" Troy's voice was a warm, moist breath on the back of her neck and Sharpay wanted nothing more than to lean best into his strong chest.

Sharpay swallowed hard and slid forward half-a-step. Now was not the time to give into her desires. There were too many lives at stake.

"I-I'm not sure", she stated coolly. "Hishtanyi is the medicine man of the village. He's the most respected man here." She watched them carefully for a few minutes, trying to pick out snippets of their hushed conversation. "They seemed to be impressed by something on the coin. What was it?"

"Just a nickel", he shrugged.

"Well, there must be something..."

Before she could finish, Hishtanyi stepped up forward and addressed Troy directly as Sharpay translated. "Welcome to Nafiat, Lord Troy. You honor us with your visit." He extended his open hand with the nickel lying on it. "Your magical token..."

"Oh, you can keep that, if you want."

The old man's eyes widened and he looked twenty years younger as his old face cracked into a huge, mostly toothless, smile. "I am honored. You must truly be a great spirit to have captured such a mighty creature within this round disk, but I am not worthy to receive such a gift." He handed the coin back to Troy. This time, Sharpay shared the stunned expression on Troy's face as she leaned over to look at the ordinary nickel lying on Troy's opened palm.

"It's just a nickel, right?", Sharpay asked out the side of her mouth.

Troy peered at it too and saw that it was one of the new Jefferson nickels with a detailed profile of Thomas Jefferson on one side. Sharpay reached over and flipped the coin with her delicate fingers. Troy noted with a pang of guilt that they weren't professionally manicured and painted with sparkly pink accents as he remembered, but were neatly trimmed and tanned. This was more evidence that he was late in his rescue; he just hoped they would be home soon like she promised.

"Wow, take a look at that", Sharpay said with a hint of awe on her breath.

On the tail of the nickel stood an engraved rendering of an American bison, more commonly known as the buffalo, standing on tufts of silvery, metallic prairie grass. His large head appeared to be hunkered down slightly due to the massive size of his heavily muscled and humped shoulders. A long shaggy coat covered his head and shoulders and extended down to form a beard at the end of his powerful chin. The details on the coin were amazing; they could almost see the beast's strong muscles rippling under his fur-covered body. Even at a height of less than half an inch, this buffalo still looked very powerful.

"That explains it", Sharpay said.

"Explains what?"

"Buffalo are a sacred animal here. We eat them, wear them, use their sinew …" She wrinkled her nose at her own thoughts. "... for things I'd rather not talk about. Trust me."

Troy nodded. "So they think that's a real buffalo, trapped in the coin?" He ran his hand through his hair. "Wow, I must be a pretty powerful god to do something like that."

Sharpay smiled brightly at him. "Don't get too full of yourself, Troy. You're not home yet." Then she looked toward the hatchway and saw Tulto standing stoically at the top. She reached over and patted Troy on his arm. "Hey, I need to go now, but I'll meet you tomorrow and we'll go to the glyphs, okay?"

"What? You're leaving me alone with these people?" His eyes flitted nervously to the assembly of old men.

"You don't have anything to worry about. You're a god, remember? You can just stuff them in a coin if they give you any trouble."

"LOL."

"Seriously, you'll be fine. Just meet me at the river tomorrow when the sun is at its zenith."

"Huh?" Troy looked confused and she realized she didn't have to talk in positions of celestial bodies to indicate time to him.

"At noon", she corrected. "Meet me at noon, Troy! Noon. Oh, and if they offer you anything to drink, don't take it. Trust me on this."

He was still nodding as she quickly scooted up the ladder and disappeared through the opening.

**=/\=**

Tulto was already lying on the buffalo fur pelt they used as a duvet. A roughly woven cotton sheet covered his lower half, but Sharpay knew he was naked beneath it. He sat propped up on his elbows as he watched her approach from the shadowy corner of the room. She walked slowly toward him, not sure of the reception she would be receiving.

Ensuring that they wouldn't be interrupted, Sharpay looked over her shoulder one last time before replying to his declaration. "You are right. Troy is not a god."

"Then, why..."

"He is my ..." Her what?

Her friend? Were they still friends after all this time? Were they ever?

Her dream lover? Duh, that would get her in some serious trouble.

Her classmate? That wouldn't make any sense to this man. Formal education didn't exist here.

Deciding quickly, Sharpay said, "... my countryman. We are of the same people. I am only trying to save his life."

"You have lied to the priests, to Hishtanyi", he said sternly.

She understood how much Tulto admired the old medicine man. Everyone admired him; he was a great man. Sharpay felt a quick stab of remorse at having tricked him earlier in the evening.

"Troy will be gone tomorrow."

"Will you go with him?" It was asked casually. However, it was anything but a casual question.

She stood next to him now and with equal casualness, she untied her dress and let it drop to the floor, revealing her toned and naked body to his equally naked gaze.

With as steady a voice as she could muster, Sharpay replied, "No, I am not leaving. My place is here. You know that."

"You are not staying because of me." It wasn't a question. He already knew the answer.

"No, not because of you, but I am staying. I promise you this, Tulto."

And as she joined him in their bed, she knew this would be enough for him. It would have to be.

**=/\=**

In a darkened kiva in the center of the village, an anachronistic teenager moaned aloud as he dreamed of a gorgeous brown-eyed girl and the future he hoped they would have together.

**TBC**

**Author Notes:**

This whole chapter about Troy's godliness wasn't in my original outline for this story. It just seemed to happen and it's a bit silly in places. Sorry, but I did need to address why they didn't just run up and burn him at the stake or something.

There was question about why Troy was a year late from xHeSaidSheSaidx:

Here's my answer. i don't know if you noticed, but in the other chapters, i was trying to show that time was running more quickly for sharpay than for troy. like when she decided to run away she had been there for 5 days, but it was only the next day for troy. and then they camped out at the river and went to glyphs, so that's another day.

and then, of course, when he went in the rock, ... well, let's just say that time is not linear. imagine a timeline from history class... troy fell out a year after sharpay did, but at least that connection they had drew them to the same time frame.

hey, i'm making all this stuff up anyway --- lol


	10. They're Grrreat!

**Twin Flames**

_A High School Musical fanfiction_

_by_

_GimmeABeat_

_beta'd by_

_Stumbling Dragon_

**Chapter 10: ****They're Gr-r-reat****!**

"_They're Gr-r-reat!!!" _

_- Tony the Tiger, referring to Kellogg's Frosted Flakes _

The heavily pregnant woman crouched on her knees next to the hearth. A large flat stone of smooth granite sat over the open fire. Dipping her hand into a large bowl of silky blue batter, she smeared it quickly over the top of the greased hot stone until it was completely covered in a thin, even layer. It only took a few seconds for the entire layer to cook and the woman peeled it off in one large sheet, laying it on a wicker tray to cool. She poured out a second layer of the batter and then laid the first cooling sheet on top of the cooking batter. When this first and second layer was done, she removed them and placed them to cool. The third layer proceeded as the first two, with the cooked sheets returning to the stone and the ultra-thin layers of bread growing infinitesimally thicker bit by bit. When she finished the entire bowl of batter, she would take the semi-transparent sheet and fold it in fourths and then, roll them into cylindrical tubes to make for portable eating. That was how one made mowa bread. Unless, of course, a certain pale-skinned friend wasn't visiting.

A small hand shot out and snatched a single sheet of thin mowa before Tsirege could stop it.

"Sse...", the older woman said in exasperation. "How will I ever finish if you keep taking them? Now this batch will be too small. I need huge amounts for the dancers this afternoon."

The corn dance ceremony would take place today in the main plaza and the dancers would dance without stopping for many hours. The only food they would consume during this time was the very portable mowa bread.

"I'm sorry, Tsirege, but it's so good. And besides, you are the last one who should need to worry about fertility dances", Sse told her pregnant friend jokingly, both of them well aware of much Tsirege had longed for this child. "You know … mowa reminds me of home. It tastes just like cornflakes." Sse flopped down on the dirt floor next to her friend and started to break off tiny pieces of the thin bread and pop them into her mouth.

"Cornflakes? What a funny name. What are cornflakes?" Tsirege asked as she continued to work, starting a new mowa which would be just a little bit smaller than normal due to Sse quick hands.

"It's what we eat for our morning meal where I come from … except we pour cold milk over it."

Tsirege rolled her eyes in comment. Even after all this time, she could never quite believe that her friend actually came from a different place and time. Therefore, stoic person that she was, Tsirege had simply decided to not think about it and just accept their friendship and not worry about where Sse came from.

Still, she couldn't help but comment on this statement. Tsirege wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Milk? You mean a lactating mother would..."

Now it was Sse's turn to look applauded. "No! Oh, no... that's disgusting. We use cow's milk. Farmers milk the cow's and then we buy it at the _supermarket_."

This was how conversations with Sse usually went. She would randomly throw in words from her own language that she couldn't translate into Tiwa and the talk would quickly break down after that. Although, this was happening less and less frequently the longer she stayed among them. This brought Tsirege to something she wanted to discuss.

"So I heard about the blue-eyed god..."

Sse sighed and brought her knees up to her chest. "Yeah... that's why I wanted to ask you to watch..."

"There is no need to ask, Sse. I would be glad to help you, but..." She stopped working and looked over at Sse. "... how long would you need my help? I mean I don't mind, but Tulto...", she asked pointedly.

"No, you don't understand. No one seems to understand. I'll only be gone a few hours, no longer; I promise. I'll miss the dance, of course. In fact, that's why I'm leaving right before it starts. No one will notice us not being there with all the excitement going on."

"So are you leaving with this god or not?"

"No, I'm not going anywhere. I promise. I have too much here now to leave it. But I am taking Troy back to the glyph and I'll help him get back home." The sadness in her voice was palpable.

"I understand, my friend. I will do what I can to help you. Why do not I come over to your apartment? It will be easier than you bringing everything over here."

Sse smiled brightly. "That would be wonderful. You are such a good friend." She sighed again, this time in relief. "Now, how about you teach me how to make this wonderful bread and then, I won't have to steal it from you all the time."

They giggled together as the more experienced woman guided the other in the age old technique of cooking the blueish purple wafer bread … hopefully, without burning her fingers as was the usual outcome of these lessons.

**=/\=**

Troy was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, which was really a ridiculous thing to attempt. He was a head taller than most people here and his skin and hair was so much lighter, there was no way he could 'blend'. When he awoke this morning, the boy, Ashtay, had brought him some food --- some sort of dry cereal that tasted a little like cornflakes. Troy hated cornflakes; in fact, he hated all kinds of breakfast cereal, much preferring donuts or some other pastry to sate his morning hunger. However, he was hungry, so he ate it and tried not to grimace too much. When he was finished, he washed it all down with water, wishing the whole time for an ice-cold Dr. Pepper.

After having been declared a god, the natives didn't seem to know what to do with him. They just let him do what he wanted, which made sense, he supposed. Who told a god what to do? Plus they seemed to be in the midst of preparation for some big event, but since he couldn't talk to anyone and he couldn't find Sharpay, he was alone to figure out what was going on. He was still thinking about that dream he had last night about Sharpay and he couldn't help but wonder how she'd spent the night. It angered and worried him equally that Tulto acted like he owned her or something.

Troy looked over and saw Ashtay pretending that he wasn't watching him. He supposed Ashtay must have been assigned to him now since the kid had been following him around all day. The only person he really wanted to see around here was Sharpay and then, he really wanted to 'get the hell outta Dodge'.

"Hey, kid!", Troy called out casually to the young Indian boy. "What's going on around here? Is it always this busy?"

There were people milling around all over the place and a couple of them, to Troy's complete surprise, looked like harlequins. They were odd little men with their hair bunched on each side of their head in two vertical horns bound with corn husks, resembling a demented Pippi Longstockings. Their eyes and mouth were rimmed with black paint and black and white horizontal bands ran the length of their entire bodies. These clowns ran around the other people who were gathering in the plaza, acting the fool for all to see. A few men in elaborate costumes began to assemble and Troy sensed that whatever was going to happen was about to start.

These costumed men were bare to their waists and wore white kilts, decorated with cloud and rain symbols. On their heads, they wore a cluster of parrot feathers. They carried gourd rattles in their hands and had turtle shells tied to their knees which rattled as they walked.

They were joined by an equal number of woman wearing black dresses tied over their right shoulders, the same as every other Indian women. They wore a red and green sash around their waists. Their feet were bare, but their heads were covered with thin boards cut in geometric designs and painted with zigzag lightning bolts, sun, and stars.

The priests, whom Troy recognized from the night before, stood in front of the group and sprinkled white powder on the costumed people while chanting in that hypnotic sing-song rhythm of speech that so characterized the Pueblo Indians.

The group of men and woman lined up to face each other in a matter reminiscent of the square dancing Troy remembered suffering through during elementary school P.E. class. Just as he was sure a caller was going to appear out of nowhere and start shouting, "Promenade, Left!", a strong arm gripped the collar of his shirt and jerked him backwards. He was half block away from the plaza before he was able to slow his captor enough to stop.

"What tha....?!" Troy whirled around, ready to defend himself against his overpowering foe. Instead, he was met with the steady gaze of, "Sharpay? What are you doing?"

"What am _I_ doing? What are _you_ doing?", she asked incredulously. "You were supposed to meet me at the river." Sharpay stood in front of him with hands resting dominantly on her hips. She was wearing the same cotton dress as yesterday, but now she wore tanned moccasins on her feet and had a modern day handbag slung over her shoulder. Troy recognized it as the one she had had with her when she went through the rock. It was dirty and worn and definitely looked like it had been here for over a year.

_Man, she always seems to be mad at me in this world. _ Troy straightened his t-shirt and tried to not look cowled by this diminutive female. "Nuh-uh, you said to meet you at noon." He pointed at his arm and showed her his watch. "See? It's only 11:30. I've got 30 minutes before I'm supposed to meet you."

"Zenith has past. You are late." She pointed up at the sky to show him the obvious.

"Zenith?" He wasn't sure what a TV manufacturer had to do with any of this and he didn't think it would be wise to ask.

She growled at him and marched off, further away from the crowd. He called after her as he ran to catch up. "Look, Sharpay... I don't know why you're so mad at me, but we're together now. So what's the deal?"

"The deal is that I don't want half the village to see you leaving with me. Plus!" She halted and Troy almost crashed into her. "I don't have a lot..." She didn't finished the sentence as she was looking wide-eyed over Troy's shoulder. "Come on", she ordered instead. "We need to hurry."

Troy looked behind him and saw two Indian men watching them curiously. When he turned back to ask Sharpay what was going on, she was running at full speed down a side alley and Troy quickly scrambled after her.

**=/\=**

Sharpay could hear his ragged breath behind her as they jogged at a steady clip along the riverbank. She smiled proudly, but decided not to tell Troy how much she enjoyed the fact that she wasn't even winded yet. It was just too cruel... but then again...

"Having trouble keeping up, Bolton?", she called back over her shoulder.

"Naaah", he panted out heavily. "I'm … fine."

"Oh...", Sharpay replied in mock surprise. "I thought we could stop for a break, but if you'd rather keep going..."

"Nope", he clipped. "I'm good … unless, you needed to stop", he added with hope in his voice.

"No, I'm fine. In that case, let's pick up the pace." Sharpay kicked up her heels and sped away from him.

The wind was blowing in the right direction and Sharpay just barely caught a muffled curse before Troy's loud breathing overcame any other sounds.

**=/\=**

Troy had lost sight of her and was so angry at both himself and Sharpay that he considered turning back towards the village. He started walking and tried to slow his pounding heart and get some much needed oxygen into his lungs with calm, steady intakes of air. Rounding the corner, he saw her perched on a fallen tree which hung out into the river. He was ready to yell at her about how unfair she had been acting all day, about how she'd lashed out at him for supposedly being late, about how she'd run off and left him when he couldn't keep up with her physically... However, when he saw the pensive look on her face as she stared down into the water, those thoughts fled his mind as he quietly joined her on the tree trunk. Whether it was from their shared connection or something else, Troy knew instinctively that this was not a place where Sharpay wanted to be. But for some reason, it was a place she needed to be.

Without saying a word, he took a slow sip of water from the gourd she'd given him earlier and offered it over to her. He remembered that with the shape his body was in now, if he gulped down the water, it was more than likely to come right back up. Sharpay accepted the water, but didn't immediately drink any.

After a few more minutes of silence, he asked cautiously, "You, okay?"

She glanced over at him, but drank deeply from the gourd before answering. "Yeah. It's just... something bad happened here and … I don't know … I guess it's some sort of Oprah thing or something. I think I need to confront my memories and my fear, but I don't really want to do that. Does that make any sense?"

"Sure, we're taught our whole lives about how important closure is, but that doesn't make it easy."

She looked over at him now and smiled. "It would take someone from the 21st century to even understand our conversation. I don't think psychiatry has been invented yet."

They fell into a comfortable silence until Sharpay blurted out, "I'm sorry."

"What?" Troy was stunned. These were definitely two words he never expected to hear from her.

"I've treated you badly all day. And … I'm sorry. I had no right to yell at you about not meeting me or about leaving you when I knew you were having trouble keeping up." She took a deep breath and stared out at the slow moving current of the Rio Grande. "Do you ever pick fights with people because it's easier to have a fight than to talk about your true feelings?" She didn't give him a chance to answer. "Things are going to happen today that are going to make both of us angry and I guess it was just easier for me to try and make you mad at me than to explain the real reason for what has to happen."

Shit, this whole time he had been trying to ignore how she had phrased things when they had first met yesterday, choosing to believe that it had been a slip of the tongue. Sharpay had said that tonight, he would be back home. _He_ … not _we_. It was like she wasn't planning on coming with him. Unfortunately, Troy was too much a coward to confront her about it. So much for Oprah and closure.

Instead of saying anything and forcing her to confirm his fears aloud, he just looked longingly towards her, but Sharpay was still staring out at the water. He said nothing, just reached over and took her hand in his and joined her in quiet contemplation of the river.

**=/\=**

Ashtay had run ahead and was just returning to his friend. Polaina was squatting next to the river refilling her water gourd when he she heard him approach. She smiled up at him and offered him the gourd.

"Thank you." Ashtay took the water gratefully. "They're just ahead ..." He took a gulp of water and let some of it pour over his face. "... on the fallen cottonwood."

"Good, I was beginning to worry that we wouldn't get to them in time." She nodded in understanding and tried to stand, but the pack on her back threw her balance off. Ashtay quickly reached out and caught her and they climbed back up the riverbank to the trail.

"It's not far, but we should still hurry."

Ten minutes later, the two young people rounded the bend and saw Sse and Troy wading across the shallow expanse of the big river.

Ashtay shouted and ran after them. "Wait! Wait! Don't leave without us."

Shielding their eyes against the glare coming off the surface of the water, Troy and Sse stood still for a few seconds until they were able to make out who had called them. Then, they both made their way back to shore with Sse sloshing through the knee-high water as quickly as she could. Then, she ran up the bank to where Polaina and Ashtay stood.

Anxiously, she called out to them, "What are you doing here? Is something wrong?" When she noticed what Polaina had on her back, her voice dropped and she asked pointedly, "What have you done, Polaina? Does Tsirege know about this?"

The girl was obviously surprised by Sse's reaction and shrank back a little at her harsh tone. "I-I thought you would want to say goodbye before you left."

"Oh, Aina..." Sharpay hugged the girl to her and cradled her head against her chest.

**=/\=**

Troy was completely confused; however, since that seemed to be a normal state for him lately, it didn't worry him too much. His self-appointed stalker was back, the boy, Ashtay. With him, was a girl Troy recognized immediately, it was Butterfly, the girl that Ashtay had been drawing yesterday and whom he and Sharpay had seen so clearly in the glyph back in the own time.

The really confusing part was Sharpay's reaction to all of this. She was mad; she was beyond mad; she was royally pissed. Fortunately, her anger was on a slow simmer right now, but he knew it could turn to a rolling boil without any notice. In the interests of self-preservation and the fact that he was pretty sure none of this discussion was any of his business, Troy decided to just stand back and watch.

Sharpay's countenance changed to one of resignation and she stomped over behind the girl to remove the backpack from Butterfly's shoulders. Just when he thought he understood Sharpay, she did something else completely unexpected. Her ill temper instantly melted away and the look on her face became one of pure love. Troy unconsciously moved closer to see what was affecting her so until he was standing within six feet of her.

Sharpay gently lifted off the backpack and began talking and cooing to it in the Indian language with unabashed delight shining in her eyes. She turned it around and Troy realized that it wasn't a backpack at all. Instead, it was a baby strapped to a board that Butterfly had been wearing on her back.

The baby was wrapped completely and tied to the board with wide bands of cloth, so that only its head was visible. Its head was full of coal black hair that stuck up at all angles, and it had a chubby face with rosy little cheeks. Even with his limited exposure to these Indians, Troy realized that this baby's eyes were remarkable. Everyone here had the same color eyes, so inky black that the pupil was indistinguishable from the iris. This baby's eyes, however, were big and bright and a beautiful shade of … brown. They were darker than Sharpay's honey brown color, but still they were brown. She angled the board around so Troy could better see the baby. Confusion shadowed his face and he couldn't for the life of him fathom why Sharpay Evans, former drama queen of East High, was watching him with such trepidation.

"Troy..." She took a deep breath as if she really didn't want to make this introduction. "This is Pata, he's my..."

Her words were swiftly cut off as a large, black blur plowed into Troy, knocking him to the ground. An instant later, a steel vise started tightening around his throat. His eyes popped open to meet the deep-set blackness of Sharpay's big Indian, Tulto.

**=/\=**

"Tulto! Stop! Please, stop!", Sharpay shouted as she handed Pata, still strapped to his cradleboard, back to Polaina.

She ran over and tugged frantically on the big man's shoulder, but it was like trying to move a boulder. She doubted that he even realized she was there. Troy was clawing at Tulto's face, but that didn't seem to have any affect either. Sharpay could tell Troy was growing weaker and his face was starting to turn bright red. She quickly jumped on Tulto's back and began pulling desperately at his hair. With what looked like his last bit of energy, Troy reached up and grabbed onto the either side of Tulto's head and jammed his thumbs into his attacker's eyes.

Tulto jerked back and let go, dumping Sharpay onto the ground. Troy immediately rolled to his side and started coughing as sweet oxygen flowed into his lungs. Before he could launch another attack, Sharpay ignored the stinging on her hands and knees and scrambled over to place herself between Tulto and Troy.

She spoke in a clear, strong voice. "Tulto, stop. This is not what you think." In her peripheral vision she noticed that Troy was on all fours now and slowly starting to rise to his feet.

Squinting through the painful tears running down his face, Tulto replied slowly, "It is exactly what I think it is. Not only did you lie to me about leaving, but you are taking my son away from me too."

"I would never do that to you. I promised." The hurt in his voice cut her deeply and she instinctively took a step forward to comfort him. As Sharpay laid a hand on his large arm, he reacted violently and struck out against her, again knocking her to ground.

"You will be going nowhere." The hurt in voice was quickly replaced by ice.

He reached forward and started to pull her up by her hair when Sharpay looked over and saw Troy stumbling up behind them. Troy's face was beet red due to a combination of the harsh sun and the near asphyxiation he had just suffered. Shaking his head to clear his vision, he stalked up to Tulto. Clasping his hands together over his head, he drove his arms down with all his might on Tulto's upper back in a hammer like blow which knocked the larger man to his knees.

"Stay... away... from... her", Troy rasped out through his bruised larynx as he stumbled back on unsteady legs.

Suddenly, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Sharpay saw the murderous look in Tulto's eyes, and for the first time she became truly frightened. She vaguely registered Pata's cries, but they sounded as if they were coming from very far away. Polaina was screaming at her brother to stop and then, Sharpay saw why. As Tulto slowly stood up, he pulled a large hunting knife from his legging and whirled around to attack an unarmed and barely cognizant Troy Bolton. Sharpay pulled herself to her feet and stepped closer to Tulto just in time to catch the edge of his sharp blade as he swept the knife around towards Troy. It sliced open her dress just below her right breast and she immediately felt the sting of the cut on her skin. She stared down in amazement at her hand which had gone automatically to her injury. It was covered in blood. Looking back to Tulto, she saw the he must have stopped when he realized he'd cut her and now stood dumbfounded, staring from the knife to her and back again. He looked on the verge of dropping it when a wild scream rang out in the suddenly silent day, even the baby had quietened.

All eyes swung over to Troy who was barreling at full speed toward Tulto. He scarcely had time to raise the knife again before Troy hit him full on and both of them fell to the ground in a conjoined mound. Then, the slow motion Sharpay had been dragging herself through flipped to fast forward. She could barely keep track of which arm or leg belonged to which man as Tulto and Troy rolled back and forth across the ground until in one heap they rolled down the embankment and into the water with a splash.

Ashtay and Polaina ran to help Sharpay stand and the three of them rushed to the edge of the six foot drop off that fell into a deep lagoon-like area of the river. Anxiously, they stared at the now still surface of the water. And they continued to stare for what felt like an eternity until one head suddenly appeared and sucked in a much needed breath.

**TBC**

**Author's Notes: **

Wow! I hoped that worked. This action stuff is really hard to write. And looky... another cliffhanger.

The more reviews I get, the faster I'll update. Please let me know what you think.

**Native American Character List: **

Tsirege – Tha-a-ba's wife, means little bird

P'ah-tah-zhuli - Toltu's 'first' wife, means little deer bean

Paxopatona -Tulto's mother, also mother of Shyuote, Sayap and Polaina

Polaina – Tulto's sister, means butterfly

Sayap – Tulto's youngest sister

Shyuote - Tulto's younger brother

Sse – corn silk, what Tulto 'renames' Sharpay

Tha-a-ba – Tulto's friend, brother to Turkano, Thing 2

Tulto – The Big Indian's real name

Turkano – Tulto's friend, brother to Tha-a-ba, Thing 1

Ashtay – Polaina's friend

Hishtanyi – medicine man of Nafiat

Pata – Sharpay's (drumroll, please) son. Yeah, like everybody hadn't figured that one out. Means blackbird.


	11. Trapped in the Past

**Twin Flames**

_A High School Musical fanfiction_

_by_

_GimmeABeat_

_beta'd by_

_Stumbling Dragon_

**Chapter 11: Trapped in Time**

"___Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas." _**_  
_**___- ____Army of Darkness____, Universal Studios, 1992_

"Now _that_ ... is downright peculiar", drawled Dr. Joanne Connolly as she caught her first glance of the Kokopelli petroglyph. She was still a few hundred feet away from it and it was due to this distance that she noticed the "downright peculiar" aspect of the etching. She had seen it before, of course, but that had been ten years ago when she was doing her post graduate work on the symbology behind ancient Native American etchings. Kokopelli, it seemed, had changed.

Joanne pushed the big floppy hat she wore up on her forehead and squinted at the basalt rock face which held the glyph she was sent here to study. Back in high school when Eddie Ray had proclaimed his undying love for her in bright neon spray paint, she never would have imagined it would lead to her chosen career as an anthropologist specializing in Native American petroglyphs. Due to Eddie's unfortunate choice of location for his artwork, both of them had spent two weeks after school scrubbing Krylon 2321 Fusion Spray Paint off the Hagood Mill Historical Site in rural Pickens County, South Carolina. After they finished removing the last of the paint, Joanne saw something peculiar on the rock face, something that turned out to be a ancient rock carving. She broke up with Eddie two months later, but her love for ancient history was still going strong.

She absently scratched at her zinc oxide coated nose while trying to understand what she was seeing. Her Irish ancestry was to blame for her fair complexion and bright red hair. And neither did well under the harsh southwestern sun. Suddenly, an imposing figure appeared, blocking her view of the glyph and shading her from those hated UV rays.

"Dr. Connolly? I'm Agent Johnson. Thank you for joining us on such short notice." He held out his hand for her to shake.

Taking it, she replied in a distinctive southern accent, "I didn't realize I had a choice." Despite living away from the south for the past fifteen years, she still clung on tightly to her down home accent.

When they pulled back their hands, Johnson looked down at his and grimaced at the slick white substance on his fingers.

Joanne shared his grimace. "Oh, sorry 'bout that." She pointed at her nose. "It must be my sunblock. It gets everywhere, but without it, I'll fry to a crisp. Now, we've got more interesting things to talk about besides my nose."

"That we do."

"How long has it been like that?", she asked indicating vaguely toward the glyph.

"Like what?", Johnson asked honestly.

"Take a look." She grabbed him by the shoulders and positioned him to look directly toward the glyph. "You can only see it from a distance; up close and the image disappears into the porous nature of the basalt. Don't look directly at the flute player... look around him", she advised.

Johnson gasped when she saw what she was talking about.

"Yeah, you see it now? It's like a negative image burned into the rock … kind of reminds me of the Shroud of Turin." Joanne was referring to the controversial cloth held in reverence at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy. It was a linen cloth which held the image of a man in negative image. Some believed it was the image of Jesus Christ while others contended that it wasn't created until some 1,000 years after his death. Either way, it was a mystery.

However, Dr. Connolly and Agent Johnson weren't staring at the image of Jesus. They were staring at the image of a man superimposed over the rock carving of Kokopelli, his face frozen in agony.

**=/\=**

_And they continued to stare for what felt like an eternity until one head suddenly appeared and sucked in a much needed breath._

"Troy...", Sharpay breathed out the name in equal parts, relief and distress.

Troy whipped his head to the side to get the hair out of his eyes and anxiously looked around in the brown water, obviously searching for his opponent. Cautiously, he started to swim to shore.

Polaina stepped to the edge of the drop-off and peered anxiously down. "But where's Tulto?" The worry in her voice was palpable as her eyes darted back and forth across the surface of the water.

Sharpay wasn't sure how she felt. She had been struggling to define her relationship with Tulto since she realized she couldn't go back home. She couldn't say she loved him. No, she definitely didn't love him, but she did have feelings for him. After all, he was her son's father and Tulto loved Pata beyond reason. And perhaps, that was a large part of the problem. Tulto loved his son, but he possessed her. She was legally his property. The only way she had of living in the village was as his woman, not his wife, but his woman. Having no clan affiliations herself, Sharpay couldn't just move in and get a job. Life didn't work that way here. Tulto was her only way into this society; he was her protector, her lover, and her owner. If he was gone (she hesitated to even think the word, "dead"), she had no idea where she stood. All of these thoughts cycled through her head as she carefully watched the water for any sign of the man.

As Troy slowly approached the shore, Ashtay ran around and met him at a small beach off to the right of the drop-off. Despite everything he had witnessed, it was obvious that Ashtay's hero worship of Troy had not abated. He even waded into the water to help Troy out when he seemed about to collapse from exhaustion. After helping him to dry land, Ashtay gently helped him lay down on the small sand bar. Sharpay found comfort in watching the rise and fall of Troy's chest, which was clearly visible even at this distance. Now, Troy was a different matter entirely. She knew exactly how she felt about him. Sharpay had had a crush on Troy Bolton since they were in the ninth grade, maybe even longer than that. However, when she realized that she would be living here in the past for the rest of her life, she had given up on her childish dreams of a future with Troy. And now... he would go back and she would stay here alone. She had promised him that he would go home and she had no intention of reneging on that promise. Equally, she had no intention of leaving her baby. That was unthinkable.

After confirming that Troy was safely ashore, Sharpay slowly approached the girl who had become like a little sister to her during her time among the Nafiat. She slowly wrapped her arms around Polaina and tried to gently pull her back from the edge, fearing that in her distress over her brother, the girl might accidentally slipped into the river herself.

Polaina didn't object when Sharpay hugged her and this gave Sharpay some measure of hope. "Polaina...", Sharpay whispered quietly while slowly drawing her back from the edge. Trying to think of something to distract the girl, Sharpay decided to mention the one person in her life more important than her brother. "Where did you leave Pata? We should check to make sure he is not hurt."

Polaina blinked twice and looked up at Sharpay, as if noticing her for the first time. "Pata? Great Spirits! I-I put him..." She started looking around the area frantically until her eyes settled on the cradleboard propped against a tree. "There he is!", she called out happily as she rushed toward her nephew, who was starting to work himself up into a good and proper cry.

Sharpay smiled at this small accomplishment and started to follow her, but grimaced as she turned. An ache in her abdomen reminded her of Tulto's misplaced fury. The wound had stopped bleeding already, and she realized that it only barely scraped her skin, just enough to bleed. Taking a thankful breath, she followed after Polaina.

**=/\=**

Troy slowly became aware of his surroundings and automatically went on the defensive. He sat up quickly, too quickly, as he instantly became dizzy and had to lay his head back down on the sand and close his eyes. If that Tulto guy was around, there wouldn't be much he could do about it.

A soothing voice spoke to him in the Indian language, accompanied by a gentle hand patting him on his arm. He recognized the voice as belonging to the boy, Ashtay, and he relaxed a little.

Where was Sharpay? For that matter, where was he? As he worked up his nerve to open his eyes and sit up again, Troy tried to remember how he had ended up here. The last thing he remembered was tackling Tulto and both of them hitting the water a few minutes later. The murky water was so dark he could see nothing, not even his own hand in front of his face. Even so, Tulto had found him under the water and Troy knew without seeing it, that the larger man still had his knife. They fought over it and Troy couldn't honestly say exactly what happened next. All he knew was that he needed to breath or he was going to die. He finally managed to kick away from the bigger man and pump his way to the surface. He didn't see Tulto again after that and hoped never to see him ever again.

Finally, Troy was able to sit up without feeling the need to barf. Ashtay helped him stand and slowly led him up the embankment to where he hoped they would find Sharpay.

**=/\=**

Polaina came out of her stupor and helped Sh'pi tend to her nephew. Sh'pi scooped up Pata and immediately started unwrapping him from the board amidst his hungry cries and protests at having been propped against a tree and forgotten, at least in his tiny mind. Polaina didn't understand why Sh'pi so disliked the cradleboard. Everyone used one. Babies were placed on the board soon after birth and were never removed from it except for bathing and cleansing until they had lived through two seasons. The board made it easy for the mother to take the baby along wherever she went. Whenever the baby slept, whether at night or during the day, the cradleboard was suspended from the ceiling and allowed to gently swing back and forth. This was one of the few practices which didn't seem to bother Sh'pi. Mothers in Nafiat even fed their babies with them on the board. Sh'pi definitely objected to this practice, much to the consternation of Polaina's mother, Paxopatona. Since she was Pata's grandmother, there was always much strife within the family.

Sh'pi always insisted on holding Pata close to her when she nursed him. All the older women in the village thought she was foolish, but the headstrong young stranger didn't seem to care. Sh'pi lifted the baby off the board and placed him on her shoulder while she quickly adjusted her dress so she could feed him. Nothing, even the death of his father, could stop the natural pace of life. Pata became frantic in anticipation of his upcoming meal and started bobbing his head against Sh'pi's shoulder, rooting around instinctively for the source of the sweet milk he could smell, but couldn't seem to find.

Her nephew's cries of hunger always made Polaina nervous since she knew she could do nothing for him. She breathed a sigh of relief as Sh'pi placed him on her breast and his cries instantly halted. Unfortunately, this sudden silence gave her time to think.

Tulto... What had happened to him? Everything had happened so quickly, she still hadn't had time to sort it all out. Tulto's behavior had seemed crazed when he had sprung upon them in the clearing. He had attacked Sharpay and even cut her with his hunting knife. Although, Polaina knew it must have been accidental. Still, he had not been himself. He appeared to be consumed with anger and jealousy. And as she replayed the events in her mind, Polaina realized that the blue-eyed god, Troy, had not struck out against Tulto until he had attacked Sh'pi. She just didn't know what to think.

Hearing a rustling in the bushes, Polaina looked up as she saw Troy and Ashtay enter the clearing. Troy looked exhausted. Would a god become exhausted from battling a mere mortal?

**=/\=**

Ashtay continued a constant chattering as they he led Troy up the steep embankment to where Sharpay and the girl, Butterfly, were waiting. He knew, if he could understand what the kid was saying, he would probably be really irritated. As it was, his voice acted like a comforting white noise against the eerie quiet of the day.

Troy's eyes quickly found Sharpay where she was sitting propped against a tree, holding the baby closely in her arms. She smiled up at him with relief clearly on her face. He smiled back and his eyes dropped to where the baby lay for the millisecond it took for him to realize what she was doing with the baby held so closely to her. Troy instantly spun around in embarrassment.

"Oh crap, Sharpay", he exclaimed with his back to her. "I'm so sorry. I didn't realize..." Well, he supposed that ended any doubt as to who that baby was. A baby... Sharpay Evans had a baby! Sharpay Evans was a mother. This one was going to take awhile.

"Calm down, Troy. It's okay. You can turn around. You can't really see anything anyway." Her voice was calm and serene. This was something else that was going to take awhile --- hearing Sharpay speak with such maturity in her voice.

Slowly, he turned around and saw that Butterfly and Ashtay were both staring at him in puzzlement. He guessed it didn't bother them to see a woman baring her … He chanced a glance in Sharpay's direction and realized that she was right. He couldn't actually see anything... just the baby pressed up against her with its dark little fist opening and closing against her pale skin in a comforting rhythm as she gazed lovingly down at its head full of dark hair.

Nervously, he ran his hand through his still-wet hair. "Sorry... This is just a lot to take in at once." He felt like he should try to explain about the big Indian guy. "Um... I'm not sure what happened in the water. It was really dark and murky in there. I couldn't see anything. And Tulto... he just disappeared."

Troy saw the instant he said Tulto's name that Butterfly stood up straighter and narrowed her eyes at him, but said nothing. Other than the fact that Ashtay was madly in love with her, Troy wasn't sure how Butterfly fit into this whole situation.

"Did he … drown?", Sharpay asked cautiously, her eyes darting between Troy and the girl.

"I honestly don't know. I kinda think he did or he would have come after me again."

Sharpay nodded in agreement and said something to Butterfly. Sharpay must have been relaying his opinion about Tulto's fate because Ashtay stepped up closer to her and she burrowed her head into his shoulder as he hugged her close to him for comfort.

Sharpay was still holding the baby and Troy suddenly felt very alone, being the only one who wasn't holding someone.

**=/\=**

"So how far did you say it is?", Troy asked Sharpay with breathless enthusiasm in his voice.

"Not much longer", she replied.

Like a petulant child, he shot back with, "That's what you said a half hour ago."

As soon as Troy had fully recovered from nearly drowning, Sharpay had insisted that they continue on their trek to the petroglyphs. Troy seemed thrilled with this idea and was now as antsy as a small child on a long car ride.

Sharpay smiled over at him and without giving it too much thought, reached over and took his hand in hers. He smiled back, but Pata chose that moment to make a tiny little noise in his tiny little baby voice as he continued to sleep in his cradleboard attached to Sharpay's back.. Troy dropped her hand and looked away in embarrassment.

They walked side by side down a footpath which had veered away from the river over 45 minutes earlier. The lush vegetation which grew near the water had quickly shriveled away to nothing in less than 30 minutes. Without the underground sprinkler systems of the 21st century which maintained the green alien lawns of the residents of Albuquerque, they found themselves in an arid desert with nothing but a few tumbleweeds as the only sign of life.

"So... a baby... That's … something … that is." Awkward didn't begin to describe how he sounded.

"Yeah...", Sharpay replied as they continued their conversation, both of them speaking intently to the ground. "But I'm really happy … about it … him, I mean. Pata... he's my life." Now she sounded like an awkward teenager too.

"What's that mean? Pata, I mean? Does his name mean anything?"

An automatic smile came to her lips as it always did when she spoke or thought about her baby. "Yes, pata means blackbird. When he was first born, his little mouth opened and closed like a little bird searching for his food, so Tulto named him Pata." Tulto's name rolled off her lips before she realized what she had said and Troy came to stop in the middle of trail.

"Oh, God, Sharpay. I am so sorry about Tulto and the fight and … and everything that happened, but when he pushed you … I just couldn't let that happen, but I never, for once, even thought that he would end up..." He stopped before the word, dead.

Sharpay picked his hand back up and held onto it with both of hers. "It's okay, Troy. You didn't do anything wrong. You protected me. Thank you."

She looked further up the trail and happily announced, "Look, we're here." She pointed slightly to their left and they saw the glyphs about five minutes away.

It was amazing how little, what would later become, the Petroglyph National Monument had changed from their own time. If you pretended that the housing development was still there and forgot that the rustic trail they stood on used to be paved asphalt, it looked exactly the same. Ashtay and Polaina appeared at the top of a large boulder near the Kokopelli glyph and waved to them.

In Tiwa, Sharpay called up to them, "We'll be right there!"

The two youngsters had run ahead and found their destination for them. They rounded the corner of the path a few minutes later and there he was, that grotesque caricature carved into the rock. It looked completely innocent and yet it was because of this simple drawing that their lives had been so unalterably changed. Polaina removed Pata from Sharpay's back. Taking Troy's hand, Sharpay led him up to the glyph.

"I guess you know how to activate this thing since you somehow made it here."

"Yeah, Taylor figured it out. It's our blood; we're linked. Remember how I cut my hand on the rock?"

A scene flashed in Sharpay's head of Gabriella fawning over him and she automatically wrinkled her nose in distaste. Troy misinterpreted her reaction and hastily reassured her, "Oh, I wasn't hurt bad. It was just a scratch really, but it was enough to turn the portal on for you to fall through. My blood opened it for you and your blood opened it for me."

"Oh. Wait a minute, then how did you get it to open the second time since I was already here?"

"Ryan was able to get some of your blood to use." He let that statement hang in the air, neither explaining or clarifying it in any way. "But we're both here now, so I figure if we cut ourselves and bleed on the rock at the same time and go together, we'll be fine."

"Right..." She couldn't bring herself to tell him anymore at this point.

"Do you have a knife?"

Sharpay searched around inside her cavernous hobo bag and produced a small flint knife and held it up for him to see. "I'll go first", she announced.

The two youngsters gasped when Sharpay quickly drew the knife across her palm in a long slice. Her blood immediately started to pool in her cupped hand and she slowly walked up to the glyph and held it over the humped-back figure, allowing her blood to drop onto it.

"Now my turn", Troy held out his hand for the knife, but Sharpay surprised everyone by flinging it on the other side of the large rock. "Sharpay!", he shouted. "What are you..."

**=/\=**

Sharpay grabbed his outstretched hand and started to pull him toward Kokopelli. "Don't make this harder than it already is." There were tears flowing down her cheeks. "Please try to understand. I can't go back, Troy. I can't leave my baby; he'd die without me. And you can't stay here; it's not right. Go home, Troy. Go home." She tried to shove him toward the rock, but they were both knocked off their feet by a sudden blur of motion from behind.

Dazed, Troy looked up and saw Tulto standing over him. _Damn, what was it with this guy?_ He kept appearing out of nowhere.

Tulto yelled something guttural in the Indian language at Sharpay. Then, he made a lunge toward her. At the last second, Troy stuck out his leg, causing Tulto to trip and crashed into the ground. Both men were on their feet in seconds and Tulto started wildly swinging his knife around at Troy. Troy jumped back away from the sharp blade, but found himself pinned against a rock with nowhere to run. He raised his arms to fend off the blow and Tulto swung around with a large arcing slice of the weapon and sliced into the back of Troy's left arm. Troy reached out and grabbed onto Tulto's knife hand and began to hit it on the rock, trying to force the larger man to drop it, at the same time inadvertently smearing the Indian with the blood from the wound on his arm.

He bashed Tulto's arm against the sharp basalt rock once, twice and finally, a third time when the knife finally dropped to the sandy ground. Then, Troy pushed Tulto away from him and quickly reached down and retrieved the knife. Troy wasn't comfortable with weapons. He certainly wasn't the kind of guy who had ever been in a street fight where knife fighting would have ever been a useful skill. His lack of ability was evident to Tulto who grinned maliciously at the awkward teenager. They circled around each other slowly; it was obvious that Tulto was looking for a easy opening in order to retake the weapon.

Suddenly, Troy realized how ridiculous this entire fight was. He was completely out of his league and adding a weapon, with which he was clueless, wasn't going to help matters. With disgust, Troy threw the knife over a large boulder and out of sight. Tulto stared at Troy as if he were crazy. Then, he suddenly let out a high pitched scream and barreled directly at Troy. Luckily, all those basketball drills finally paid off and Troy was able to dive out of the way right before Tulto would have hit him.

Instead, Tulto crashed head long into the rock which held the glyph of Kokopelli and which was still coated with Sharpay's wet blood. He instinctively put out his hands to absorb the fall, the hands which were covered in Troy's blood which had been transferred to Tulto's hands during the fight.

**=/\=**

Kokopelli began to glow and the image started to swirl around, opening a black vortex in the rock. Sharpay realized immediately that this opening of the portal was very different from when she came through it. Tulto's hands sank into the rock and he screamed out in agony and tried to pull back, but it wouldn't release him. In fact, he began to sink further into it despite his obvious struggle to pull himself free.

Troy seemed to understand what was happening and without regard to any danger to himself, he grabbed onto Tulto's waist and pulled with all his might. Sharpay and Ashtay joined Troy, all of them pulling together to save Tulto. Sharpay saw Polaina standing awkwardly to the side, holding Pata. At first it appeared that they were making progress, and Tulto's hands seemed to be coming back out of the rock. However, his hands weren't really moving; it was just that his arms were being stretched out and his screams of pain were deafening.

The pull of the vortex was overpowering all of them and Tulto sank deeper and deeper into it, pulling Troy, Sharpay and Ashtay along with him. Ashtay's eyes widened in horror and realization and he seemed to know what he had to do. With great effort, he shoved Troy and Sharpay away and allowed Tulto to be engulfed by the time whirlpool. As if someone had flipped a switch, the portal and Tulto's screams were cut off, leaving nothing but an eerie silence hanging in the air.

**TBC**

**Author's Notes:**

I want to apologize for taking so long to update, but life has been really crazy lately. I hope I still have some readers out there.

I was really surprised that everyone was so surprised about Sharpay's baby. I thought I had given loads of hints along the way.

Let's see....

In Chapter 8, Sharpay chastises Polaina for yelling in the house and tells her to use her 'inside voice'. Be honest, have you ever heard anyone other than someone's mom (yours or someone else's) say that?

Then, before she would leave she made sure that Polaina would stay at the house until she got back.

Also in chapter 8, when Troy sees her for the first time, he thinks that she has _ample breasts and hips. There was just something very squeezable about her._ That's cuz her boobs are bigger from the baby.

In chapter 9, when Tulto and Sharpay are in their 'bedroom'. Here's what happens, Ensuring that they wouldn't be interrupted, Sharpay looked over her shoulder one last time before replying to his declaration. "You are right. Troy is not a god."

She was looking back at the darken corner of the room to make sure that the baby was really asleep.

Also in that scene, there's other hints.

_With as steady a voice as she could muster, Sharpay replied, "No, I am not leaving. My place is here. You know that."_

"_You are not staying because of me." It wasn't a question. He already knew the answer._

"_No, not because of you, but I am staying. I promise you this, Tulto."_

In chapter 10, she goes to her friend, Tsirege, to get her to babysit. That scene is very clear, if you squint.

Hope this helps.

Hey, guiltypleasure mentioned that she was from South Carolina. I was born there, so in honor of this odd little state, I included the reference to Pickens County and petroglyphs. See? There's not just in France and the desert.

Please R & R so I know you you're still out there.

**Native American Character List: **

Tsirege – Tha-a-ba's wife, means little bird

P'ah-tah-zhuli - Toltu's 'first' wife, means little deer bean

Paxopatona -Tulto's mother, also mother of Shyuote, Sayap and Polaina

Polaina – Tulto's sister, means butterfly

Sayap – Tulto's youngest sister

Shyuote - Tulto's younger brother

Sse – corn silk, what Tulto 'renames' Sharpay

Tha-a-ba – Tulto's friend, brother to Turkano, Thing 2

Tulto – The Big Indian's real name

Turkano – Tulto's friend, brother to Tha-a-ba, Thing 1

Ashtay – Polaina's friend

Hishtanyi – medicine man of Nafiat

Pata – Sharpay's son, means blackbird.


End file.
